By Bernard Fi tzsimons ast approaching a first flight currentl y scheduled for Decem­ ber, the Sukhoi Superjet 100 is barely a yearawayfromits inauguraldeliveryto launch cuFstomerAeroflot in November 2008. The develop ment , prod uction and testing efforts areramping up accord­ ingly. Alenia Aeronautica has taken a 25 ,--_ ~9 ._ percent stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft ... __ -", Co. (SCAC) and will set up a joint ven­ ture in Italy to provide marketing and (Top) Flight deck of the new Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jet with Thales avion­ after-sales support outside Russia and ics suite was inspired by the cockpit layout of the Airbus A380. (Bottom) One of the Comm onwealt h of Independent the two systems integration benches used by Thales in Toulouse, France. One States. Boeing has expanded its long­ bench was to be moved to Moscow by the end of the year. standing consultancy role. Airframes are underassembly at Komsomolsk­ France's Th ales, meanwhile, is devel­ nition phase with Suk hoi that started on-Amur in the Russian Far East and oping the new regionaljet's avionics before the contract award and contin­ undergoing tests by TsAGI, the Central under a $120 million contract signed ued afterward . Aerohydrod ynamic Institut e, at Mos­ last year that covers the specification, Program managerLionel Rouchouse cow's Zhukovskyair base. The PowerJet design, validation and integration of said the company has around 270 people joint venture of Snecma and Russia'5 the complete suite through certification, working full time on the Superjet pro­ NPO Saturn is building and testing plus the first 50 shipsets of hardware. gram inToulouse. Bordeaux, Paris and SaM146 engines in Rybinsk. T he design is the produ ct of a long defi- elsewhere in France, in Moscow andin 32 Avionic s Magazine October 2007 1111 www.avionicsmagazine.com . ~ . Montreal. There are two integration benches in Toulouse, one of which is like­ The Sukhoi Superjet 100isthe first aussian lyto be movedto Moscowbefore the end airliner designed to meet Western certilication of the year, and an electronic bird at the standards, and isconsidered key tothegrowth SCAC headquarters in Moscow. There of Ru ~i an aerospace. is also a software development joint ven­ The aircraftis being builtbySukhoi Civil ture in Moscow employing more tha n 60 Aircraft Co. (SCAC), the civil division of Russia 's SCAC stalT, in addition to the 30 staff famedSukhoi Co., and Italy's Alen iaAe rospace, Thales has at its office in the city. a 25- percentstakeholderin SCAC. Designed to FAR 25, European JAR 25and RussianAP-25 requirements for transport-cat­ egory aircraft, theSuperjet will beavail able in 75- and 95-seat versions,in bothbasic and A3BO Inspired long-haulconfigu ration.itwill compete against theAntonov148 and comparable Embraer and The avionics arch itecture and night deck Bombard ierregional aircraft. layout are derived from thoseof the Air­ As ofAugust, SCACreported 71 firmorders for the Superiet, including 30 byAeroflot; 15 by bus A380. The high processingcapability the ausstanairii ne allianceAirUnion ; 10 by Financial Leasing Co. , of Ru ~ia ; and 6 bysussian of the integrated modular avionics at airli ne Dalavia.The first Westerncustomer, announced this year at the Paris Air Show,is ItAli its core saves weight by enabling several Airlines, based in Pescara, Italy.ltAli hasordered 10as-seat,long-range variants. functions to be hosted inside the same processor, Rouchou se said. The proces­ sors communicate via a dual Avionics propose a predictive windshcar weather that the aircraft is manufactured eight Full Duplex Switched Ethernet that is radar. Optional features include single hours' flying time from Moscow. Ano ther automatica llyswitched in case of failure. or dual high frequency(HF) radios,dual complication is the Moscow software An integrated central maintenance sys­ Goodrich electronic flight bags (EFB) joint venture that is providing the soft­ tem provides efficient failure correlation and a printer, among others. ware for the data concentrator and some and troubleshooting. Principal suppliers include Rockwell auto matic cod ing and verification on The night guidance, flightmanage­ Collins, VORIDME navigation; Hon­ the cockpit displays. "It's a difficulty ment and recording system includes an eywell, inertial referencesystem (fRS) having our customer being the customer autoflight control system, flightguid­ and communications management and the supplier in the same program," ancecontrol panel, CMC Electronics unit (CMU); Teledyne Controls, Inte­ CMA-9000 night management system grated Flight Data Management Unit (FMS), and fli ght warning system, plus (IFDMU); and MPC Products Corp., air data and smart probes and fligh t and Skokie, 11 1. , throttle. IIllUlII I ll,', I n,,' " I .... '.ill1!IIrn .. .. '" .'111111 voice recorders. Thales provides the flight "Thales has to manageall those sub­ 11111' f • .•• , .. .. 11,1! '111111 deck's five-screen control display system, systems because we have a system integra­ 1111 ' 11'"." "IW 11,'" • -t. control panels and the integrated elec­ tor responsibility," said Rouchouse. "\Ve I ' ll ' ~ I " .. ',111 "101 --- tron ic standby instrument. have to manage more than 17 par tners in l I lli ' • 7!1...." Communications. navigation and sur­ North America and Europe, so it's a com ­ l111N11i1 '11111101 -- - " l lm ' oI veillance equipment includes radio navi­ plexprogram." l i N ' gation , radio and audio communication, The involvement of staff in Montreal W~ , ~ ~I ., data link, Honeywell Primus 880 weather is a legacy of the Bombardier Dash 8/ .. ., eu •...• "" .... [li]f 2 3 Me .• , radar,the T2CAS terrain and traffic col­ Q400 program that features Thales's first "". "" '" .. lision avoidance system from the Thal es. completecommercial flight deck. They 4 5 6 A B- C 0 Q:) F G L-3 Communications jo int venture ACSS, are handling the legal and contractual 7 8 9 I J K l M @ and Thalesmulti-mode receiver, VHF aspects, plus purchasing from suppliers in 0 "- 0" p Q R (Ji) T U communications and radio altimeter. North America. , / se v (\Oil X Y Z ClR In total, Rouchou se said, the avionics "The same team was involved in the suite comprises 190 items of equipment Dash 8 programand now in Sukhoi," CMC Electronics CMA-9000 FMS and 90 part numbers, Proposedgrowth Rouchouse said. "So we have a good syn­ options includea single head-up display ergy, but the avionics proposed is more Rouchouse said. (HUD) and a multimodereceiverwith complex and a new generation." Both the system integration benchesin microwave landing system (MLS).Thales Further complications include Russian Toulouse and the electron ic bird in Mos­ and Sukhoi also are evaluating whether to legal and customs proceduresand the fact cow use real fli ght deck equipment, and www.avionic smagazine.com llli October 2007 Avionics M agazine 33 Thales, Sukhoi Collaboration said its IFDMU is a customized version Thales has been active in Russiasince predecessor, SextantAvioniqu e, became involved in the of the flightdata interface management MiG-AT militarytrainer program in 1993. The company has worked withSukhoi since 1994, unit selected by more than 100 Airbus when itdecided to participate in project 711, which aimed toequip an Su-27 Flanker prototype operators. Designed to perform flight with Sextantavionics. data acquisition, aircraft condition moni­ Subseq uent fruits otthat involvement include a 1998 contractto supply the Indian Air Force toring and data recording, it combines Su-30MKI's cockpitdisplay system, plus navigation and identiticationequ ipment. thefunctions of the flightdata interface Undera 2003 contract coveringtheRoyal MalaysianAir Force SU-30 MK M,Thales is unit used formandatory data acquisition. responsiblefo r providing full interoperability withwesternaircraft, NATOstandardstand-by datamanagement unitused to monitor instruments, a wid e field -of-view holographic HUD , navigation FUR and Damocles targeting engine and aircraft condition, and digital pod for full day andnightoperalional capabilities for air-to-airand air-to-grou nd missions, and access recorder. combined interrogator/transponder IFF. Replacing up to three LRUs, the IFDM U will enableoperators to save theelectronicbird has a display system salesand marketing for Europe. Asiaand weight.wiringand rack space andsignifi­ with wrap-around visua ls. Moving one of Australasia,said theThalesselection for cantlyreduce initialequipment costs. the benches to Moscow willenable Thales theSuperjet was "verysatisfying and really Integration on theelectronic bird engineersto bemore reactive in investi- . conlinnsourclaims thatthe-9000 is avel)' had just started in early August. "But on gating problems detected on the bench or viablesolution forOEMsaround theworld." the systembench inToulouse we are on on theaircra ft itself. The FMS is easilycustomized. "We do track. onschedule. so the integration is To help ensure the technology used software upgrades of the -9000on a very good for us," Rouchouse said. represents the state of the art, Thalcs regularbasis. adding newfunctionality In earlyJuly, SCACpersonnelwere has recruited a 17-strong panel of pilots, all the time," Villeneuvesaid. So the sys­ installingthe Snecrna-supplied simulator including two of its own pilots and others tem is readily adaptable when customers fortheSuperjet's SaM I46 engine in the from AirFrance, its subsidiaries Regional requ ire specialcapabilities. It also benefits electronicbird. Anothersimulatorhas been from the experience of its predecessor.