Week of May 26, 1997
Flying Laboratories For SaleOfficials at LII, Gromov's Flight Test and Research Institute (see the 28 April issue of AeroWorldNet) say Russia is considering selling some of LII's most advanced flying laboratories to India and China. In total, LII has fifty various test-beds and flying laboratories at its huge airport in the town of Zhukovsky, some 35 km southeast of Moscow. Among those are five "flying radars," similar in shape and size with the A-50 early-warning aircraft in military service. Answering the question about the difference between the A-50 and those five airplanes, V. Tsiplakov, a senior researcher with LII, says, "The A-50 solves combat tasks, whereas our flying laboratories are intended for managing flight experiments. This determines the difference in on-board equipment."  "Besides, our flying laboratories use another platform, the Ilyushin Il-76MD, a civil version of the basic military airlifter." Although the LII's laboratories are civil aircraft, their entrance doors have been tightly closed to the mass media. It has been this way until earlier this month, when a group of Russian journalists were invited to take a close look at one of the mysterious aircraft, carrying identification numbers "RA76452" and "976" on its wings and fuselage. The journalists were even allowed to enter the aircraft and have a walk inside. Making my way though the maze of wires and boxes of sophisticated equipment, I was amazed to learn that not so long ago even pilots were prevented from entering the central section of the plane they flew! All the five flying radars are derivatives of the well-known Il-76MD freighter and are intended to provide effective testing of various air vehicles, including pilotless reconnaissance platforms, passenger airliners, military airplanes and even spacecraft. "Our flying laboratories are the main tools in doing our job," say flight researchers at LII. Since there is no official designation for those five aircraft the local researchers refer to them as "command-and-measuring posts", or "komandno-izmeritelniye posty" in Russian.  The RA76452 carries 20 tonnes of avionics and computers to track and command air vehicles being tested remotely. No special ground facilities are needed to conduct flight tests. Telemetric, measuring and experiment-management equipment work in conjunction with powerful computers. This combination enables resolution of various tasks on managing flight experiments in real time. The large radome, mounted above the fuselage on two angled pylons, protects antennas of a powerful on-board radar. According to LII people, the radar can track aerial vehicles at a distance of 600 km and space vehicles at 1,000 km. The RA76452 also carries a satellite-based communications and data-link system, which transfers data to ground posts. During flight experiments, the incoming data is processed and recorded on magnetic disks at a rate of 3 Mb/sec. The command-and-measuring post can track six experimental vehicles simultaneously, providing control inputs on all of them by means of radio signals. The researchers aboard the RA76452 have all the necessary information in real time and in a comprehensive form to make decisions during flight experiments. It is good to stress that by their very nature, development prototypes and experimental vehicles are immature machines. Sometimes they behave in a different way than the designer would like them to. If something goes wrong, the flight researchers can take immediate measures in order to save the day or, at least, to prevent fatalities. The heart of the RA76452 - its central post - is located just behind the entrance door (the latter is on the starboard side of the fuselage). The post has two graphic workstations with wide color screens. One of the screens displays, in graphical form, flight trajectories of the vehicles being tested. The second screen shows telemetry on propulsion, control and other essential systems of the vehicles. The RA76452 is not a brand-new aircraft; the majority of its on-board systems and computers were created in their original form 10-12 years ago. Since installation into the aircraft, though, they have been subject to numerous upgrades and modifications. As a result, overall functional capabilities of the aircraft as a flying laboratory have noticeably increased. For instance, the radio-telemetric complex now works not only with telemetry, but also measures trajectory with an error of less than 10 m.
LII people say the USA and the UK have aircraft in the class of the RA76452, but functionally and technically the Russian plane enables researchers to manage flight experiments more effectively. Forced by the acute cash crisis in the Russian aerospace industry, leaders of Gromov's Flight Test and Research Institute approached their colleagues in friendly countries with an offer to procure Russian-made flying laboratories. Felix Zolotarev, chief of LII, says, When asked about probable customers, a deputy chief of LII says, "We are talking to China and India, who are trying to create their own aircraft. Those countries have reached a point where they need specialized, heavily-equipped flying laboratories like those we have. Specialists from both China and India have recently visited Zhukovsky to assess our aircraft." The LII leadership sees only two ways for China and India to go - "Either they simply buy a couple of our existing aircraft or we, basing on the experience gained, build new tailor-made airplanes for them." Although the LII officials refuse to specify how much exactly Russia charges for the existing flying laboratories, they readily give a clue what it could cost India and China should those countries opt for newly-built aircraft. An Il-76MD airframe fitted with a radome may cost several dozen million dollars. Fitting the plane with modern on-board radars, various systems and computers would increase the sum by double. In addition, some extra money should be spent on integration of hardware and software in one well-arranged complex. Not cheap... | |
"Many foreign organizations have expressed an interest in our offer and we have made the decision to exhibit our flying laboratories at the MAKS'97 Air Show."
