Indonesia works toward issuing flight certification
JAKARTA (JP): The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) vowed yesterday to provide Indonesia's Directorate General for Civil Aviation with technical assistance to allow it to issue flight certificates for Indonesian-made aircraft.
The organization's president, Assad Kotaite, said after meeting with President Soeharto at Merdeka Palace here yesterday that technical assistance is among the various cooperation issues presently being discussed by the organization and the Ministry of Transportation.
Other projects include technical assistance for the expansion of airports in Manado, North Sulawesi, and in Ambon, Maluku.
Kotaite said the ICAO was to provide technical assistance until next year to make flight certification possible, but it will now continue to the end of 1997. The program will allow the Directorate General for Civil Aviation to issue certificates for such aircraft as the N-250, which is being produced by the state- owned aircraft manufacturer PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN).
Kotaite was accompanied by Director General for Civil Aviation Zainuddin Sikado in the meeting with Soeharto.
The N-250, Indonesia's first domestically-designed medium- range commuter plane, made its inaugural taxiing test on Sunday in preparation for a maiden flight scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday in a ceremony which will be attended by President Soeharto.
An N-250 prototype -- named Gatotkoco after a flying hero in the ancient Mahabarata epic -- carried out low-speed (25 knots, or 45 kilometers per hour) taxiing tests (ground maneuvers) on Sunday at IPTN's grounds in Bandung, West Java.
Alex Supelli, a senior IPTN official, said in Bandung that the taxiing test would be gradually accelerated to reach medium and maximum speeds and eventually to prepare the aircraft to fly.
Taxiing tests, he said, allow the pilot to master the aircraft's system when it operates on the ground.
Medium-speed (40 knots, or 60 km per hour) taxiing tests were conducted to test the aircraft's wing, tail and brake systems, while high-speed (90 knots, or 150 km per hour) taxiing tests, scheduled for today, will ensure that the aircraft is safe to fly close (five meters) to ground level for a period of five to six minutes.
It will also test the aircraft's ability to conduct rolling, yawing and pitching movements.
Broken
Sunday's taxiing tests, however, were disturbed when one of Gatotkoco's generator shafts broke down during a medium-speed test and had to be replaced.
According to Supelli, who accompanied State Minister for Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, the aircraft's safety electricity system allowed the following tests to be carried out while the spare parts were being delivered.
Habibie said the spare parts were taken from Cengkareng, west of Jakarta.
He assured that the damages would not have an impact on the aircraft's first flight on Thursday. "There will be no problem with its first flight. This sophisticated aircraft will be ready to fly," he said.
Supelli explained that the aircraft's security system is made up of several layers to anticipate any damages. "This way, if something goes wrong, a spare system will be on hand," he said.
Supelli said that the damaged shaft has already been taken care of. He added that "the shaft actually should not have broken...It was a matter of negligence which caused the safety system to operate, which mechanically broke off the shaft".
He said that if further tests ran well, the Gatotkoco would be airborne on Thursday, with pilot Edwin Danuwinata and co-pilot Erwin in the cockpit.
The Gatotkoco is scheduled to run its "hopping" tests today, which involves taking off and landing after 10 meters, as a test of the aircraft's overall responses.
IPTN's team of experts will conduct further tests all day today to ensure complete safety both on the ground and in the air.
Habibie, who is also the president of IPTN, said that only US$400 million from the projected N-250 budget of $650 million has so far been used.
He was quoted by Antara as saying that IPTN, which currently employs 16,000 people, has received orders for 192 units of the N-250, both from local and foreign buyers.
"The break-even point will be gained after 259 units are sold," Habibie said to hundreds of local and foreign journalists on Sunday.
"Indonesia's aircraft industry, which has succeeded in the designing of the N-250, has boosted the country's reputation on an international level. This can be seen, for example, from proposals from 26 cities in the U.S. to conduct mutual partnership programs with IPTN," Habibie said.
The Gatotkoco, which has a 70-seat capacity, made its debut last November at an inauguration ceremony attended by President Soeharto.
Of the 192 plane requests, 188 orders for the sub-sonic aircraft, which applies a "fly-by-wire" technology, have come from Merpati Nusantara airlines -- a subsidiary of the flag carrier Garuda Indonesia -- and two other domestic airlines, Bouraq Airlines and Sempati Air.
Gulfstream International Airline has also signed a letter of intent to purchase N-250s while a U.S. company is said to have ordered 10 units and a European firm another 24 units.(pet/pwn)