A fully import-substituted SJ-100 has landed in Naryan-Mar. The crew commander, Hero of Russia and Honored Test Pilot Leonid Viktorovich Chikunov, spoke about how one of the most difficult stages of aircraft certification is going.
According to Chikunov, flight tests in icing conditions are a mandatory item before being allowed to passenger flights. It is they who confirm that the machine retains its flight characteristics, stability and controllability even when ice builds up on the wings and fuselage.
The testers deliberately drive the SJ-100 into zones of heavy icing. There, a layer of ice up to 8 centimeters thick forms on the aircraft in a short time. In such conditions, several critical parameters are checked at once: aerodynamics, engine operation and their gas-dynamic stability when ice enters the air intakes.
The successful completion of these tests is an important step towards full certification of the SJ-100. The aircraft, which now has no foreign components, is preparing for regular passenger transportation throughout the country.