Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) is establishing a new infrastructure facility that will accelerate the projects it carries out.
According to the statement made by the company, TAI has accelerated its work and investments for faster production of domestic and national products. It is aimed to accelerate the development, certification and production processes of domestic and national products with the flight control system integrated test facility called “Iron Bird”. The facility, which is planned to be operational in February 2022, will be the first in the field of aviation in Turkey.
With the “Iron Bird” facility, a strong infrastructure will be provided for the integrated testing and verification of critical systems of HURJET and its different configurations. The capabilities to be acquired will also be used for the National Combat Aircraft, which is called Turkey’s survival project. All flight critical equipment to be used on the aircraft will be tested with the test facility designed and constructed by TAI engineers.
Among the systems where test activities will be carried out, there will be Flight Control System, Hydraulic System, Landing Gear System, Electrical System (Simulation and Real), Simplified Cockpit and Avionics Systems. The facility, where approximately 50 people will work, is expected to operate for more than 30 years.
Regarding the facility, Temel Kotil, General Manager of TAI, said, “We continue to break new ground for our country. This structure is a first in Turkey and is among the capabilities of the few companies in the world. With counter-loading systems, all control surfaces of the aircraft are protected due to environmental conditions and during maneuvers. It will be possible to observe the flight control system outputs by applying the loads that may be exposed. The data collected with real-time recording, replay and instant analysis features were also designed as the premise data center for the ‘Virtual Twin’ concept to work.”
