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BAE Systems has announced the successful completion of testing of modifications it has developed for the CT-4B Airtrainers it operates for the ADF’s Basic Flying Training School (BFTS) to allow them to meet contemporary civil certification crashworthy standards.
The modifications were a key element in BAE’s bid for the ADF’s Interim Basic Flying Training contract to provide flight screening and initial pilot training until a new Pilot Training System is introduced under the Air 5428 project later this decade.
“BAE Systems has understood the requirements of the ADF Airworthiness Authority and delivered a set of modifications that will bring the CT-4B aircraft to the contemporary standard,” said John Quaife, general manager aviation solutions.
“I am pleased that we will now be able to provide an improved standard of crash protection to the men and women of the ADF and BAE Systems instructors who fly these aircraft.”
The modifications include a new seat design that absorbs greater dynamic loads in a crash situation, BAE Systems says. They were developed in partnership with Aeronautical Engineers Australia (AEA), with dynamic testing of the new seat taking place at the Autoliv Australia Test Centre in Victoria in late February.
The complex test program involved several test runs of a modified CT-4B fuselage along a test track, occupied by a heavily instrumented Hybrid-III anthropometric test dummy, to demonstrate that the loads sustained by an occupant in a simulated crash met the latest regulatory requirements.
The successful completion of the testing will now see BAE Systems and AEA work with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to achieve a supplemental type certificate for the CT-4B to meet FAR Part 23 crash protection requirements.
