Wind Tunnel Tests of Sino-Russian CRAIC CR929 Mockup Complete

A series of wind tunnel tests of a scale model of CRAIC CR929 250-to-350 seat wide-body twinjet airliner to be jointly developed by China and Russia, has been completed.

“The wind tunnel simulation (large tubes through which air is blown around an object) of High Speed Standard Model (HSM) made on a scale of 1:39 in the ‘fuselage plus wing’ configuration, in transonic T-128 wind tunnel was performed within a week by the specialists of TsAGI, part of Zhukovsky Institute,” UAC said in a statement Thursday.

China-Russia Commercial Aircraft International Corporation (CRAIC), a 50-50 joint venture between Chinese Comac and Russian United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), has been tasked with the development of the plane.

The HSM was designed by aerodynamics team from both Comac and UAC, and was built in China.

The current series of tests were held in Moscow, however, similar tests were being held in China and in the European Union (EU) earlier this year. “A series of tests in different countries has allowed us to collect data, on the basis of which we can perform a correct comparison of the results. The obtained information will allow us to more accurately predict the aerodynamic characteristics of CR929 aircraft in the conditions of full-scale flight,” explains Maxim Litvinov, Chief Designer of CR929 program from the Russian side. 

“We will be able to compare the results of tests of the same standard model in aerodynamic installations of several countries. This happens for the first time in our practice”, says Anton Gorbushin, Head of laboratory of research complex for aircraft aerodynamics and flight dynamics of TsAGI. 

Experts from the two countries are conducting a detailed analysis of the entire cycle of tests, which will be articulated in a report. Results obtained will be used to aid in the CR929 engineering work.