CESA has signed a contract with the commercial aeroplane division of the company Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), specifically the branch located in Xi’an under the name Xi’an Aircraft Corporation (XAC), an aeronautic manufacturer of mid- and large sized aeroplanes, for the regional aeroplane called MA700. The MA700 is a 78-86 seat turboprop aircraft with a range of 1700 km. It is the third and largest commercial turboprop developed by AVIC.
The project consists in the development by CESA of a locking and emergency release system for the landing gear of the MA700 with an electrical backup called LGRES (Landing Gear Release Emergency System). This system is conceived as an alternative to the customary systems that have a mechanical release system that is operated manually, which requires pulling a long steel cable from the pilot seat down to the emergency operation selector, usually located in the fuselage close to the landing gear bay, in the event of blockage or failure in the main hydraulic system. In this approach, the CESA system includes not only hydro-mechanical locking devices and their electromechanical backups, but also other related elements such as:
- Control panel and indicators in the cockpit.
- Electronic control device for the system and interaction with other aircraft systems.
- Hydraulic valve to enable extension by gravity of the landing gear in the event of failure of the hydraulic systems (free fall selector valve). This valve also requires an electromechanical backup in order to enable its operation in emergency mode.
The main technical objectives to be developed in this project are:
- Development of Electromechanical Blocking Hooks and their corresponding Electronic Control Units for aeronautical applications.
- Integration of the complex electrical and electronic control devices for flight applications.
- Development and validation of on-board software with flight critical functions.
Landing Gear Release Emergency System
In parallel, CESA has been selected by AVIC CHENGDU CAIC ELECTRONICS to design, develop, certify and manufacture the selector valve and the Shut-Off Valve parts of the aforementioned LGERS subsystem, required for the operation of the blocking hooks in normal and emergency operation.
By obtaining this contract CESA can position itself in the Chinese market through a new client such as AVIC, a company with more than 500,000 employees and considered the main aeronautical manufacturer in China, enabling CESA the possibility to procure other contracts.
