Bell/Agusta Aerospace is set to restart ground tests of the BA609 tiltrotor "within weeks" and could resume flight tests as early as the end of March pending successful evaluation of the aircraft's recently installed BAE Systems flight-control software.
"Ship One is on the stand and tied down," says executive marketing director Don Barbour, who adds the ground tests will culminate in a flight-readiness review to clear the way for tests that will include "aircraft mode" for the first time. In the previous flight-test phase, which began in March 2003 and amassed 14h of mostly vertical flight and hover time, around 25% of the envelope was explored.
"This time we'll be tilting the rotors between 75¡ and 95¡," says Barbour, who adds that the revised BA609 is close to 95% of final production configuration and therefore more suitable for US and European certification, which is planned for 2008.
The test effort is backed by more than 38,000 equivalent flight hours on a full-scale wing, more than 54,000 equivalent flight hours on the flaperon and a recently completed pressurisation test on Ship One to 25,000ft (7,600m). As a result the tests will allow full envelope expansion at altitudes up to 25,000ft and 275kt (510km/h), against 5,000ft and 100kt in the initial test phase.
A new addition to the flight-test effort for the next phase is the introduction of a second test aircraft, Ship Two, which is expected to be moved shortly to Agusta's test facility at Vergiate. Ship Two will follow Ship One into the air by "three or four months", says Barbour. After them will come Ship Three, which will begin flying in Italy in 2006, and a fourth test BA609 in the USA in 2007. Despite the programme delays, Bell/Agusta says it still holds 60 firm orders for the BA609.
Source: Flight International
