The official microblog of China Aviation Industry Chengdu Institute recently released an article about some details of J-20 fighter’s test flight on the Tibetan plateau, including a serious oil leak, which also reportedly occurred during J-20 fighter’s maiden flight in 2011.
The airport where J-20 fighter first flew on the plateau is more than 4,000 meters above sea level (note: which is believed to be Daocheng Yading Airport – the highest civilian airport in the world), with an average temperature of only 4.1 degrees Celsius throughout the year and a huge temperature difference between day and night.
The plateau’s UV index is high and it is often windy and rainy. There is no constant-temperature hangar here. If the J-20 fighter is allowed to park in the open air, its stealth coating would be destroyed and the aging of electronic equipment would be accelerated. After the J-20 fighter completes its test flight, all members of the test flight support team need to cover it with a mask.
Due to severe wind erosion, many debris were scattered on the runway. In order to solve this problem, the team members divided into several teams and bent down to pick up the debris from the taxiing area. It was obvious that one-time cleaning was not safe, and there was a two-person team that needed to inspect the main runway, which is 4,200 meters long and 45 meters wide, back and forth before each flight until all debris hidden problems were eliminated.
In addition, the runway of the plateau was very rough, J-20 is a heavy fighter and the front landing gear adopts a single wheel design with high pressure, so the tire wear was more serious than other fighters, and the tire had to be replaced once every two takeoffs and landings.
Whenever this happens, the test flight team members needed to take turns to press the jack, one person pressed it more than a dozen times, and they soon got tired and panting in the plateau environment.
Sometimes unexpected situations would occur, adding to the already heavy daily work. For example, once when J-20 was landing, the hydraulic oil leaked from the front landing gear shield cylinder, and the hydraulic oil spilled all over the front landing gear cabin and the main weapon cabin driven by the high-speed airflow. In the absence of antifreeze materials, the test pilot team members could only wipe the oiled surface with absorbent paper and skimmer with their bare hands.
