'no kidding' dual hydraulic failure, you'd
MD-90-30
have no flaps or slats either," he adds.
Handling and cockpit commonality is a
key part of Douglas Aircraft's marketing
drive to operators of DC-9/MD-80-series
twins. "If you blindfolded someone and
put them in the cockpit, they probably
couldn't tell you whether they were flying
in the -88 or in the -90. Inside, it looks
almost like an -88. If in doubt, leave all
the switches on automatic and don't fool
with them," says Jones. "Even a DC-9
pilot could walk into this aircraft and not
have any problems," he adds.
Envelope expansion is now complete at
the high-altitude and high-speed ends.
"Operationally, this aeroplane will have
the same envelope as the MD-80 and -88,
with speeds up to 340kt and Mach 0.84.
In clearing that envelope, we have to go
15% beyond that, so we have been up to
Mach 0.85 and 395kt equivalent airspeed
[EAS], All Douglas twins up to now are
cleared up to 395kt indicated airspeed.
That equivalent for the MD-90 is 411kt
EAS, so we will be cleared to a larger
flight envelope than any other twin and
it really flies nice out there," he says.
The aircraft will be certificated to
37,000ft, but for testing has been flown to
around 40,000ft.
The slower end of the envelope is not
due to be cleared until later this year after
stall testing begins in July. "Because we're
going to Paris, there wasn't enough time
to get it all done prior to that. We've got
pretty good confidence that the overall
low-speed and stall characteristics will be
the same as the -80, because it has the
same wing. [Stall speeds are well under
lOOkt with 40 flaps]. Until we complete
stall testing, we're operating with airspeed
tags just to be conservative. We have 5kt
added on to take-off speeds, for example."
CREW ESCAPE
When the first MD-90, called the T-l,
returns from Paris, it will be fitted with
a spin chute for the stall tests and final
clearance of the full envelope. "I'm not
expecting anything strange out of [the
stall tests] and the rest of the basic
flight-test programme," says Jones, adding
that this is due to be completed by the
end of September 1993.
To give the test crew a better chance of
escape in an unrecoverable deep stall, the
aircraft has a crew-escape chute mounted
on the tail stairway. The steps of the stair
are covered, for a smooth sliding surface,
and the stair has weights to speed deploy-
ment. A handgrip bar is slung across the
chute to help crew members egress at the
correct angle into the slipstream. Two sets
of hand-rails line the aisle down the cabin
to help the escape and prevent the crew
from becoming lodged between the banks
of test equipment as they move to the
escape slide.
50
operational speeds versus altitude
15-
M= .57 .7
g 10-
<V L O )R
100 150 200
Airspeed (knots)
Jones believes that this escape system is
superior to that used in the MD-80, which
involved egress through the forward
cargo-compartment hatch.
The aerodynamic qualities of the wing
have already been improved by a pattern
of vortex generators (VGs), developed on
Douglas Aircraft's testbed MD-87 at Yuma,
Arizona. "They've certainly helped us
open up the buffet boundary and will
enable us to meet our top-of-climb guar-
antee. It looks like we're going to make
it," says Jones.
A series of VGs forward and slightly
inboard of the aileron have also been
introduced to help increase the effective-
ness of the tab-driven flight-control sur-
faces in the event of separation stalls at
high altitudes. The VGs are also arranged
in two spanwise groups near the leading
edge of the outboard wing-section and
will provide additional stall warning by
generating buffet.
The re-plumbed wing-fuel system, de-
signed to pass cold-soaked fuel through a
heat exchanger to avoid the development
of the "cold corner", which is seen on
MD-80s, is expected to be tested for the
first time "in anger" when the aircraft
travels to Europe. Other provisions also
include a revised fuel-burn cycle, ice
sensor and wing-yarn tufts to test for ice
while on the ground.
Exposure to icing is expected during
the European trip, which is scheduled via
St Louis, Missouri; Gander, Canada; and
Shannon, Ireland; on the way to Rome,
where the aircraft will be demonstrated to
Italian flag-carrier, Alitalia. The T-l will
then be flown to Le Bourget, for a
six-to-seven day stay at the Paris air show,
before being flown north to Stockholm,
where it will be shown to several Scan-
danavian MD-80 operators. These include
SAS, Transwede and Finnair. A stop at
Manchester, UK, to visit Airtours, is then
.84 .895
OOxr V
o Vrc VD
250 300 350 400 450
scheduled, followed by a return to the
USA via Reykjavik, Iceland.
McDonnell Douglas will then take the
MD-90 to Bangor, Maine, and Atlanta,
Georgia, where it will be demonstrated to
Delta Air Lines, before being flown to
Washington National and East Hartford
en route to Long Beach.
Before beginning the tour, the aircraft's
anti-skid and carbon-brake systems will
be tested on a wet runway somewhere in
the western USA. In testing, Jones de-
scribes the operation of carbon brakes as
"very nice and very smooth".
Full certification is not due until Au-
gust 1994, so that design changes from
the test programme can be introduced
early into production and to ensure a
complete "service-ready" capability, with
Category Ilia and automatic landing.
The T-2, the avionics test aircraft, is
due to be flown in September. As the T-l
is already fitted with a standard avionics
suite, however, the tasks to be carried out
on the T-2 are expected to be made easier.
"We've already got a head start on some
of the likely avionics problems, so that the
T-2 is going to be in really good shape as
an avionics test aircraft," says Jones.
From the test-pilots' perspective, that
head start feeling seems likely to be
reflected throughout the programme. CI
The engine is the most obvious external change
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 9 - 15 June, 1993