Russian air carriers and aircraft designers are awaiting the results of certification tests of the first SJ-100 with domestic import-substituted equipment, which recently arrived at Zhukovsky Airport. The experienced aircraft flew over 6 thousand kilometers from Komsomolsk-on-Amur with an intermediate landing at Novosibirsk's Tolmachevo airport.
Before receiving a type certificate from Rosaviatsiya and launching mass production, the aircraft needs to undergo a series of different tests. Aviation of Russia calculated that, in general, before the certification of the regional SJ-100, the aircraft must pass more than two hundred of them, and of various types. These include:
- design tests – confirm the technical characteristics of individual components and aircraft systems laid down during design;
- laboratory tests – investigate the properties of materials and components under controlled conditions;
- strength tests – check the strength and integrity of the aircraft structure under overloads. For this, loads exceeding the calculated ones are applied to the airframe during bench tests, under which the structure may be destroyed. Such tests are carried out by the Chaplygin Siberian Research Institute of Aviation – SibNIA;
- static tests – checking for overloads, tightness, integrity of parts of the aircraft structures. SibNIA is also involved in this. Such tests include certification static tests of the fuselage, wing, mechanization, attachment points of the main and nose landing gear, horizontal tail and engine pylon;
- resource tests – the functional model is tested for aerodynamics, strength and resource, functioning and interaction of onboard and other systems with each other. Such tests are carried out at TsAGI, the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Zhukovsky. For the updated SJ-100, which arrived for certification, 36 thousand flight cycles of tests were carried out there in 2023, including in those load modes that cannot be implemented in a real flight;
- flight tests – checking all functions of the aircraft, its controllability, take-off and landing characteristics, reliability and safety. Conducted by experienced test pilots and operators of onboard instrumentation in real operating conditions, but without passengers;
- tests for compliance of the aircraft with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO – for noise on the ground, operation of the anti-icing system. They also check operation in low ground air temperatures, as well as in high latitudes, to prove that the aircraft's electronics are able to work without failures even beyond the Arctic Circle.
Currently, the structural test is partially carried out in digital form, and in the future, PJSC "Yakovlev" will create a full-fledged digital twin for the import-substituted SJ-100. However, the digital twin, as noted, will not replace real aircraft tests with the participation of specialists.
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