Photo by Liu Zhiping
On August 6, the AC352 helicopter crossed 4,800 kilometers from Jiansanjiang, Heilongjiang to Guizhou LiupanShuiyuezhao Airport to carry out a sub-plateau test mission to verify the compliance of the aircraft's plateau performance with the airworthiness clause. The ac352 helicopter annual work meeting held in February this year clarified the goal of obtaining the China Civil Aviation Type Certificate by the end of the year.
In the past six months, the AC352 development team has been riveted, under the correct guidance of the aviation industry and the strong support of the bureau, the factory has actively implemented the instructions of the superior, attached great importance to it, allocated sufficient resources, airworthiness, test flight, test, AEG fronts, and worked intensively, with full horsepower, and did not relax and give up on the goal.
Confidence and determination to "pay no attention to conditions and no cost"
In order to ensure the collection of evidence at the end of the year, the Aviation Industry Helicopter Institute attaches great importance to it, makes every effort to allocate resources, and clarifies the division of labor and compacts responsibilities. The leaders of the competent institute participate in the monthly meeting every month, and the leaders in charge participate in the model weekly meeting every week, establish a hierarchical work system of "the leader - the chief division - the project management - each scientific research department - each professional room - the designer", and the key issues of evidence collection are personally "unveiled and put in charge" by the management minister of the scientific research department, the professional vice president or the representative of the airworthiness commission, leading the research team to solve.
More than 125 people were invested in the helicopter to promote the evidence collection work around the five main lines of airworthiness, test flight, test, AEG, and airborne equipment, the leading cadres commanded from the front, and the chief division system made decisions "not overnight", discussed on the same day, made decisions on the same day, and arranged on the same day. The outfield is permanently followed by a flying team, with more than 20 designers to deal with solving problems, and the design team has established the confidence and determination of "not talking about conditions and no cost".
In addition, the helicopter institute also focused on the quality of documents and the safety of test flights, and emphasized them at the weekly regular meeting, formulated a system for the last place interview of the approval rate of the Ministry of Scientific Research, issued the "Work Requirements for Improving the Quality of Airworthiness Documents", strictly enforced the internal audit system of airworthiness documents, and assessed the secondary pass rate of the review; for technical problems, it was solved in strict accordance with the "Double Five" zeroing procedure and reported to the bureau.
In the first half of the year, the research and development team of the factory fully implemented the resource guarantee, the test flight efficiency was significantly improved, and the average effective monthly test flight hours increased to 45 hours/month. At present, the test flight of the applicant is 73% complete, with the remaining 126 subjects/114 hours, all of which are scheduled to be completed by the end of October. At the same time, it has also completed 300 hours of fixed inspection, 2 avionics software upgrades and corresponding verification test flights.
The review of airworthiness documents has progressed rapidly, with more than 200 documents approved in the first half of the year, pushing the document approval rate from 32% at the beginning of the year to 65% now. All scientific research departments attach great importance to the competent ministers, experts and designers, take the initiative, go all out, and exert the spirit of special ability to fight, which is highly recognized by the examiners of the bureau. At the same time, in view of the various risk elements affecting the forensics, the project team formulated effective control measures, clarified the solution path and plan, and reached an agreement with the bureau.
Running to the earliest sunshine continues the romance of the aviation people
Heilongjiang Jiansanjiang is the AC352 field test flight station, more than 40 kilometers to the north is the border area of China and Russia Sanjiangkou, which is one of the earliest places where the sun rises in China, and is also the birthplace of the famous "Beidahuang Spirit".
2021 is a key year for AC352 forensics, and test flights are the top priority of the year's work. Throughout the year, it is necessary to complete the applicant's test flight, the bureau's approval test flight and the functional reliability test flight, etc., and it is necessary to fly nearly 300 hours, and the OEI control box, avionics software upgrade, on-board ground test and other tasks must be interspersed in the middle, and its arduousness can be imagined. The scientific research departments of the Helicopter Institute fully support the test flight of AC352, take the initiative to take the initiative to locate the problems that occur in the test flight process, and concentrate wisdom to solve the problems to ensure the safety of the test flight.
On January 4, the test flight of AC352 alpine subjects officially began at Jiansanjiang Wetland Airport. The cold test flight lasted a total of 29 days, and in the weather below minus 30 degrees Celsius, the cumulative flight was 33 hours and 54 sorties, and all the verification subjects were completed according to the outline. After the end of the cold test flight and the brief reunion with the family, the test flight support team ended the Spring Festival holiday ahead of schedule, and flew to Harbin on the fourth day of the New Year to cooperate with the reloading of the whole machine, "The Year of the Ox is to carry forward the spirit of 'three kinds of cattle'", and strive to ensure that the model test flight has a good start in the Year of the Ox.
The morning sun went toward the dew, and the stars and the moon returned. "Complete the task and return home as soon as possible" is the most simple wish in the heart of the test flight team stationed in the field all year round. In the case of the delay of the epidemic, every fault cannot wait, and every gap test flight team wants to make full use of it. Whenever it was close to noon and the crew had not yet completed the test flight of the relevant subjects, Liu Zhiping, the captain of the flight team, would let Master Ye bring a box lunch into the scene. Although everyone squatted on the steps with a box lunch, each of them "enjoyed it", quite a feeling of "those who have enough music, do not know that the mouth is not as good as others".
During the "May Day" period, Lu Weijian, the chief engineer of the model, personally led the team to experience the problem of malfunction, set an example for the young comrades who followed the flying team, and boosted morale. Zhang Conghui, a young man in the flight control department, said: "Although watching the relatives and friends in the WeChat 'circle of friends' either go sightseeing or go home to rest, which makes everyone somewhat envious, watching our helicopter strolling in the sky is not a unique landscape? "The test flight team ran in front of the earliest sunshine of the motherland, inherited the spirit of "Northern Wilderness", and continued the romance of our aviation people.
What has not changed over time is the commitment to customer safety
In order to accelerate the test flight of AC352, since October 2020, the airworthiness team of the helicopter institute has repeatedly communicated and negotiated with the bureau review team with the support of the group company. Taking into account the actual situation of ac352, the review team issued the "AC352 Helicopter Type Approval (TIA) Implementation Procedure" for this type of aircraft, proposing that the approval letter could be issued in stages.
On January 15, the AC352 helicopter successfully completed the "parallel test flight" of the alpine bureau at the Jiansanjiang Wetland Airport. In this test flight, the "parallel test flight" between the local government and the airworthiness applicant was adopted. This move can not only enable the bureau to directly review the helicopter, reduce the burden on the applicant, increase the trust of the bureau in the applicant's test flight, but also greatly improve the test flight efficiency and development progress, reduce the time of the follow-up bureau test flight and reduce the recurrence of the second alpine test flight.
Since the beginning of this year, the AC352 helicopter has completed the engine fault injection airworthiness verification test and test flight, and the fault injection test carried out in strict accordance with the requirements of the CCAR-29 airworthiness clause shows that the AC352 can still perform large maneuvers when the engine has some secondary and tertiary faults, which verifies the safety and reliability of the helicopter. On July 12, with a beautiful slide landing, AC352 successfully completed the test flight of high-risk subjects of unavailable fuel at Jiansanjiang Wetland Airport, and the measured unavailable fuel quantity value was in line with expectations, indicating the excellent operational safety of AC352 helicopter.
"Verification shows its safety" and "verification shows that it meets the requirements of airworthiness regulations" is getting closer and closer to the market and the expectations of users, and the design concept of safety first runs through it. "The test aircraft team rated our model very well, and our performance was excellent compared to the helicopter of the same tonnage." Liu Lina, designer of the power fire protection system room, is full of confidence. Designers recognize the products they develop, which is the source of confidence and strength for products to enter the market.
"Bravely shoulder the heavy responsibility of model, decisively win the technical attack, charge ahead, unite and cooperate, meticulously organize, resolutely complete the task of evidence collection, and contribute to the construction of an aviation power in the new era!" Clenched fists, firm eyes, oath is a ceremony, but also a strong determination to show the party to the party flag. The ac352 model development line strengthened the party building, and the factory set up a temporary party branch and a party member commando team for joint forensic evidence collection of AC352 helicopters on the first line of test flight, and solemnly swore an oath in front of the party flag.
In July, the jiansanjiang river was clear, and Luo Ronghuai, deputy secretary of the party group and general manager of the aviation industry, boarded the AC352 helicopter. When encouraging the development team at the test flight site, he said that ac352 evidence collection is related to the national strategy, and the whole line of development should improve its political position, further unify its thinking, and unswervingly hand over a satisfactory answer sheet to the party, the country, and the people. The development of civil aircraft is a national strategy, but also the main business of the group, and doing a good job in civil aircraft is also the mission and responsibility of our generation. Emergency rescue and civilian market is the focus of the development of civil helicopters in the future, with great market space and potential. As a foreign cooperation project, AC352 represents the most advanced civil aircraft development and management technology, in today's international environment, AC352 project is also a business card of the country's foreign cooperation, showing an attitude of China's foreign cooperation.
Eagerly anticipating, words are still in the ears. Every look is full of anticipation, and every time you return to the capital, you are accumulating strength. AC352 helicopter after 15 years of development process, like a marathon relay run, the current development team is taking over the baton of history, with the fullest passion and the most vigorous fighting spirit to go all out to the end of the year to launch a sprint!