Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE
TAIWAN'S AERO Industry Development Centre (AIDC) is having to redesign the fuel-management system of the Ching-Kuo Indigenous Defence Fighter (IDF), following the shut down of production at its Taichung plant.
The decision to suspend production for at least six months and recall 40 already complete IDFs from service, follows the recent loss of an aircraft.
The Taiwanese air force fighter is understood have suffered an engine flame out because of fuel starvation.
According to local sources, one of the IDF's internal wing fuel tanks dried up after an auxiliary underwing tank failed to transfer fuel. The aircraft's fuel booster was not switched to another tank, but continued to try and draw fuel from the dry bladder.
A back-up gravity fuel-feed from a second wing tank failed when the pilot put the aircraft into a tight manoeuvre. Subsequent AIDC ground tests simulated the situation and produced the same results, with the aircraft's twin International Turbine TFE1042-70 turbofans flaming out.
The aircraft has been plagued by other problems since entering air force service in January, and local sources have suggested this has also contributed to the decision to temporarily stop production. One area of concern is understood to centre on the interface between the aircraft's controls and its Lear Astronics digital fly-by-wire system.
The IDF programme has also suffered from poor quality control, with AIDC understood to be struggling to meet its production quota of two fighters a month. Local sources suggest that there is a high degree of non-conformance in the aircraft's sub-assemblies.
Maj Gen Hsing Yu-Kuang, the official in charge of the Chien Shou Number One Plant where the fuselage is produced, was dismissed in October.
AIDC is keen to play down the problems, return the aircraft into full production and complete its order for 130 aircraft.
The IDF's performance has been heavily criticised in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan, and there have been opposition calls for the programme to be scrapped.
Production of the IDF was cut from 250 to 130 in the light of both the USA and France's decision to release combat aircraft to Taiwan. The latest bout of troubles for the project will inevitably provide further ammunition to those in parliament who are calling for the IDF to be scrapped.
Source: Flight International