Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has accelerated its efforts and investments to produce domestic and national products faster. While aiming 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 a first in the field of aviation in Turkey.
Iron Bird facility, initiated by the Turkish Aerospace Industries, which continues the infrastructure works to facilitate the development of projects, will provide a strong infrastructure for the integrated testing and verification of HÜRJET and critical systems of different configurations of HÜRJET. 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 at the test facility designed and constructed by Turkish Aerospace 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.
Turkish Aerospace Industries General Manager Prof. Dr. Temel Kotil spoke as follows about the facility to be established:
“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 the counter loading systems, it will be possible to observe the flight control system outputs by applying loads to all control surfaces of the aircraft that may be exposed during maneuvers due to environmental conditions. The data collected with real-time recording, playback and instant analysis features was also designed as the premise data center for the ‘Digital Twin’ concept to work.”
Prof. Dr. Temel Kotil had announced in the past months that the Jet Training and Light Attack Aircraft HÜRJET would start ground tests at the beginning of 2022. Noting that the first flight will be carried out in 2022 following the ground tests, Kotil said that HÜRJET will perform a better settled flight on March 18, 2023.
