Second MC-21 test aircraft completes successful flight
Irkut Corp.’s infused carbon fiber composite wing aircraft reaches a milestone with a successful six-hour test flight.
Irkut Corp. (Moscow, Russia) has announced that on July 20 the second MC-21-300 test aircraft completed a successful test flight, flying from Irkutsk to Zhukovsky in the Moscow Region. The flight lasted 6 hours.
The single-aisle aircraft employs an infused carbon fiber composite wing that is created entirely out-of-autoclave (OOA). The composite structures for the wing were fabricated by sister company AeroComposit (Moscow).
The flight test program for the MC-21-300 started on May 12, at the airfield of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, a branch of Irkut Corp. The aircraft has accumulated a total of 14 hours flight time during test flights and has reached altitude of 12,000 m, speed of 0.8 M and true speed of 850 km/h. During the flight tests stability and controllability characteristics of the aircraft were tested, the altitude and speed measuring system was calibrated and aircraft systems operability was checked.
Further testing of two MC-21-300 test aircraft will be carried out at the Flight Testing Facility (FTF) of Yakovlev Design Bureau (Moscow, Russia).
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