Click Like to Follow Fliegerfaust Facebook page to get the News ASAP / Share to share this post now.

September 29, 2014 - 10:55am local (14:55z)

UPDATED September 30, 2014 - 10:20 local (14:20z) (FTV4 made it to Salina Airport in the evening yesterday)

News from Wichita: As I already mentioned weeks ago, one of the CSeries Flight Test Vehicle was scheduled to go to Salina Kansas to further advance the testing program. This afternoon, FTV4 will be leaving Wichita for Salina Regional airport SLN/KSLN.

FTV4 will be performing anti-skid testing using the long and wide runway that Salinas Regional has to offer. The runway 17-35 is 12300 feet in length and 150 feet wide (300 feet longer than the already very long Montreal-Mirabel airport YMX/CYMX runways). Wichita has runways as wide (important for anti-skid testing) but is a busier airport and would create more discomfort when closing a runway for such testing.

Salina Regional airport was originally Schilling Air Force Base and also known as Smoky Hill Air Force Base built in 1942 and assigned to the II Bomber Command, Second Air Force, with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses arriving first and was part of the B-29 Superfortress development and training programs.

Back with CSeries, the anti-skid testing will further confirm the new CSeries 100% electrical brakes and its anti-skid features. The electric brakes used by Bombardier for its CSeries are Meggitt's EBrake.

Sylvain Faust

Here's information from Meggitt about its EBrake for Bombardier CSeries:

Electric braking provides fully integrated brake control and anti-skid protection including emergency and parking brake functions by combining brake-by-wire control technology with electro-mechanical brake actuation. Its development follows the aircraft industry's gradual adoption of electric technology to develop more fuel efficient aircraft with lower emissions. Electric braking is also expected to increase dispatch reliability and reduce unscheduled maintenance costs. The elimination of hydraulic fluids reduces the risk of leaks and associated fires.

Meggitt's Ebrake® has particular features, explains Kenneth Schwartz, President of Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems: "We achieved a degree of compactness and efficiency in this braking system that the industry took around 70 years to deliver in hydraulics. We believe it to be the most compact system in development, with no compromise on performance."

Meggitt's integrated electric braking system includes nose and main wheels, electric actuators and associated control system elements amounting to 48 line replaceable units. The system deploys Meggitt's lightweight, longer lasting NuCarb® carbon heatsinks.

Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems equips Bombardier's entire fleet of over 1500 commercial jets and supplies the Q400 advanced turboprop commercial transport digital brake control system under a subcontract arrangement and business jet braking equipment for Bombardier's Learjet 60XR and Challenger Models 605, 850, 870, and 890.

Bombardier has selected Meggitt's flight deck-based tyre pressure indicating system (TPIS) for the CSeries* family of 110 to 130-seat jetliners.

The award extends the functionality of Meggitt's Total Braking System featuring Meggitt's industry-leading EBrake® technology, which was selected by Bombardier in 2009.

The TPIS adds to the aircraft's latest technological advances, providing CSeries aircraft flight and maintenance crews with remote real-time tyre pressure data.

After calculating temperature-compensated tyre pressure, the TPIS will generate tyre pressure data and associated warnings for indication via the aircraft's flight deck displays.

Ground crews will be alerted to the requirement to inflate a given tyre correctly via the aircraft's health and monitoring system, thereby reducing the frequency of manual tyre pressure checks and extending tyre life by enabling operators to more readily maintain correct pressure levels.

Tyre pressure data is transmitted across the stationary axle-to-rotational wheel interface using Meggitt's short-distance wireless technology.This has enabled Meggitt to create a product that is lighter and more reliable than the previous generation of TPIS systems.

Bombardier's selection of Meggitt's TPIS is a significant collaborative win for two Meggitt divisions—Aircraft Braking Systems (MABS) and Meggitt Sensing Systems—and builds on MABS' longstanding association with Bombardier.