Russia tests intellectual technologies for supersonic civilian aircraft

MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. The Zhukovsky Institute Research Center said it had for the first time in the world tested intellectual technologies for a supersonic civilian aircraft.

Pilots took off a demonstrator of the technologies in a Yak-40 flying laboratory and controlled it from a cockpit without transparency by external vision with cameras of various spectral bands.

"The Zhukovsky Institute for the first time in the world tested a demonstrator of intellectual technologies that implements terminal-to-terminal concept in conditions of a closed cockpit (without transparency). The technology can be used in future for the creation of a prospective supersonic civilian aircraft," it said.

The demonstrator included an external vision system and innovative navigation and observation means. The external vision comprises five cameras of the visible band and two infrared cameras and ensures flight control from a cockpit without transparency due to a video stream from the cameras and information about the outside situation.

The experimental research of the demonstrator was held in Novosibirsk by the Chaplygin Siberian Aviation Research Institute. The crew included institute CEO, test pilot first class Vladimir Barsuk. The aircraft was piloted by remote control systems and external vision.

The experiment with a closed cockpit included taxying, acceleration, takeoff, ascend, flight, landing approach and landing on the airstrip. It provided data on navigation and operation of external vision and algorithms to determine obstacles on the airfield and data to learn neuro network algorithms. The experiment confirmed the possibility to implement the landing technology of a prospective supersonic civilian aircraft in conditions of control from a cockpit without transparency by external vision.

"The work of the Zhukovsky Institute is necessary and important to create the image of a supersonic civilian aircraft. The successful trials of a closed cockpit provided valuable data for further research and confirmed the possibility in principle to take off, land and control the flight of a supersonic civilian aircraft in the absence of transparency," First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said.