RuAviation

In Zhukovsky continues flight tests of the aircraft MC-21, performed flights to test a new version of the software of the automatic control system and integrated control system in order to expand in the future type certificate to provide landing under category III ICAO, reported in the Yakovlev Design Bureau.

In these flights, fully automatic landings were performed for the first time, as well as takeoffs using an automatic thrust unit. In total, the 73053 and 73054 aircraft performed 19 flights in August with a total duration of more than 65 hours.

Irkutsk hosted a series of flights of the 73057 flight on a programme to determine the fuel consumption characteristics of an aircraft with a wing made of domestic PCMs. As explained in the Yakovlev Design Bureau, these flights are performed for the subsequent comparison of the characteristics of the serial aircraft after the planned replacement of engines with domestic ones. Currently, the 73057 aircraft is fitted with PW1400G TPDs. In August, the aircraft performed four flights totalling almost 17 hours.

On August 2, this aircraft returned from Ulyanovsk, where it was painted in the corporate colours of the United Aircraft Corporation at the Spektr Avia enterprise. Previously, the aircraft had registration 73361. The wing of the aircraft is made of Russian PCM, the power plant – two geared PW1400G turbofan engines. In autumn 2022, the aircraft flew for certification of the Russian composite wing.

According to plans for 2021, this particular aircraft was to be the first commercial MC-21 in the Aeroflot group. However, the cessation of supplies of foreign components to Russia led to the need to connect the board to certification flights under the import substitution programme. And that is why in July the aircraft was re-registered from the civil register to the experimental one.