Page 25 - Flight International (January 2020)

ROTORCRAFT

Mollis facility faces challenging weather
Kopter conditions during winter months

❯❯ At that point, Kopter was preparing to fly warnings when approaching speed, altitude dampers on the main rotor head to improve
the programme’s third prototype – effectively or power thresholds. ride quality, plus an assortment of aerody-
the aircraft to be used to mature the configura- Hovering was also ruled out because of the namic and handling tweaks, such as to the
tion. But because the issue was found to afflict likely strain this would put through the hous- vertical fin and horizontal stabiliser.
all of the gearbox components produced, the ing. “There were several times when I won- Chief test pilot Richard Grant says that the
only way to get the helicopter into the air was dered whether [flying] was a good idea,” con- ride of the SH09 is already as smooth as or
a significant period of test and evaluation to fesses one pilot. even smoother than other helicopters out
prove – to itself and to the European Union But in September last year, came the “long- there, although at certain parts of the enve-
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) – that flights awaited retrofit” of the new gearbox housing, lope there are “weaknesses” which “is what
with the parts would be safe within a certain sourced from a different supplier: “Now we we are working on”.
flight envelope. can fly the helicopter rather than the helicop- Approaching top speed “we are seeing a
Then, when EASA had given its permis- ter flying the pilots,” says Riccobono, “and little bit of motion in the nose”, he says,
sion for those flights to start – the first sortie explore the full envelope.” But with the first which is what some of the changes are de-
took place in November 2018 – the dramati- sortie using the new component only having signed to counteract.
cally reduced envelope meant much slower taken place last autumn, envelope expansion The final configuration will be reflected in
headway than expected. work is still in its early stages. Nonetheless, two further test articles: pre-serial (PS) aircraft
Riccobono sees that “significant progress” has 4 and 5, which will arrive from mid-2020.
DECENT PROGRESS been made: weight has been incrementally in- A substantial amount of certification flying
“The envelope restrictions in terms of air- creased to 2.6t – close to the target of 2.85t – will be carried out by PS4 in Pozzallo, leading
speed and manoeuvres were so severe that it and the helicopter has been taken to 10,000ft to an aircraft approved to operate at 16,000ft
really hampered progress,” says Riccobono. density altitude. density altitude and at temperatures between
Nonetheless, with persistence that eventu- Test activities have been aided by the estab- -10°C (14°F) and 35°C. That will be followed
ally translated into “decent progress”, despite lishment of the dedicated facility in Pozzallo. by cold weather and hot-and-high campaigns
the “limitations of the flawed gearbox”. Staff undertake six-week rotations at the site, using PS5, in Alaska and Colorado, respec-
But flights were anything but simple. and the final Sicilian sortie of 2019 – coinci- tively, clearing the SH09 to operate at temper-
Take-offs with the “crippled” gearbox were dentally the prototype’s 100th – took place on atures as low as -40°C.
a “nightmare”, says Riccobono: pilots 4 December (the flightplan reads: “conduct a Riccobono says that even without the
were forced to perform an ungainly shuffle photo shoot in the vicinity of Modica”). changes the SH09 would be certifiable, but
to become airborne without overstressing “[The aircraft] is giving us more than I Kopter’s ambition is not to produce an aircraft
the housing. could expect – we are really using it now as I that is merely adequate. “We always want to
“You had to suppress your natural reaction. would call it a workhorse in order to get the be better than the others,” he says.
[The technique] goes against anything final configuration frozen. The pilots are quite The intention is to be “a little bit above the
you have been taught,” says test pilot happy with it,” says Lowenstein. EASA certification level”, he says, which
Michel Dekkers. Data gathered from the flights with the new includes having the safety performance of
Similar restrictions were applied to flight gearbox housing will be used to inform a CS-29 helicopter – essentially crash-
as well: test pilots describe sorties where improvements to the helicopter that will be worthiness and bird strike resistance – in an
either Riccobono or flight-test engineer implemented in early 2020. Modifications aircraft certificated to EASA’s CS-27 small
Adam Reynolds were constantly issuing include changes to the elastomeric blade rotorcraft standard.

26 | Flight International | 28 January-3 February 2020 flightglobal.com