BOMBARDIER HAS added the fifth,and final, aircraft to Learjet 45 flight-testing. The Canadian company reports a "dramatic improvement" in the performance of the flight-test programme, which has now exceeded the 1,100h mark.
Delayed US certification of the AlliedSignal TFE732-20 turbofan powered light business-jet is now scheduled to take place by about the middle of the year. Bombardier says that flight-test activity has increased with the addition of the fifth aircraft, which will be used for a series of function and reliability tests, the final stage in the certification process. Originally certification of the 10/12-seat aircraft had been planned for 1996.
By mid-March, flutter testing had been conducted at speeds up to Mach 0.87 at 36,600ft (11,100m), and M0.66 at 11,000ft. Bombardier says that definition of stall characteristics is more than 90% complete and adds that testing in natural icing conditions has now been completed.
On the ground, ultimate-load testing on the complete-airframe static-test article is scheduled to be completed in mid-May. More than 13,500 equivalent flight hours have been accumulated on the durability and damage-tolerance test article at Learjet sister company Shorts Brothers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The 60,000h test programme is to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2000, the company says.
Source: Flight International
