Airbus A380 Test Flight Program and Certification

Описание: " When I started the first takeoff," said Rosay in a conversation with Wings, "I had no thoughts on the significance of the external events. I was here to fly the aircraft and my entire thoughts were focused on the job at hand. If I had worried about all the other issues I would have stayed home in bed." Although the A380 uses fly-by-wire (FBW) technology, Rosay was using it in its simplest form. "The only automatic system turned on was the yaw damper," Rosay said. "We planned to fly the aircraft using Direct Law control until we were sure that all the feedback signals were correct." In Direct Law, the FBW computers act as a straight-through control of the flight surfaces. For every pilot input there is a direct movement of the particular control surface and no additional signal conditioning from other computer systems. "After I lifted the aircraft off the runway we climbed straight ahead at a slightly lower-than-normal climb angle as I first evaluated the feel of the aircraft in the pitch axis." Preliminary takeoff speeds were calculated to be V1 = 146 kts, VR = 146 kts and V2 =157 kts, with a takeoff roll of approximately 9,800 feet.

Once satisfied with the pitch response of the aircraft, that channel was switched to At the Toulouse delivery facility the Normal Law mode and the same tests were carried out on the roll channel. On the first flight, the landing gear was tested in both normal operation and emergency extension, various flap positions were flown and the aircraft was stalled in both clean and dirty configurations. "The aircraft stalls very smoothly," said Rosay. "There is no indication of roll or yaw as the wing starts to stall first at the wing root. There is very little vibration before the aircraft drops cleanly on the present heading." There were no surprises on the flight as Rosay, had 'flown' an engineering flight simulator extensively prior to the first actual flight. Canada's CAE will be providing A380 simulators once Airbus provides the actual aircraft performance numbers from the flight test data.

Despite weighing in at a husky 437,000+ kilograms, the aircraft does not feel heavy in flight. "The wing loading is so low that the aircraft feels very responsive despite its size and weight," Rosay said. "I have flown some crosswind landings already and had no problem with control. In the engineering simulator, we were carrying out landings with crosswinds as high as 55 knots." Taxiing an aircraft of this size is also not a problem. "We sit directly above the nose gear and the distance to the mains is not much different than other aircraft, so manoeuvring is no problem." The position of the A380 cockpit, halfway between the two passenger decks, also provides for improved ground visibility.