The €79 million ($100 million), four-year European Union Fifth Framework research programme Aircraft Wing with Advanced Technology Operation (Awiator) project has been granted a 12-month extension because flight-test resources were diverted to the A380 programme.
Awiator would have ended with a review meeting on 27 June, but instead its unfinished flight-test campaign restarted last month. These are for the second part of the second flight-test programme, known as FT2B, and began at Toulouse using the Airbus A340-300 testbed.
The FT2B campaign will see wake vortices, noise, gust detection and load control systems investigated. Low noise procedure flights will be operated from Tarbes airport. The wake vortices work will see a chase aircraft with light detection and ranging (LIDAR) equipment participating.
In November 2004 simulator studies at the Technical University of Berlin were used to downselect flight procedures for the test campaigns. "We have the ability to calculate and assess what will be the noise if you fly the trajectory [in the simulator]," says Airbus Awiator co-ordinator Jens Koenig.
He adds that the FT2B LIDAR wake vortex experiments were not A380-related and were for longer-term aircraft and operational procedure development.
The first part of the second test campaign, FT2A, was conducted from November 2005 to January 2006.
Source: Flight International
