AeroTEC

UAV Flight Test Development Phase II

This student team worked to capitalize on past work developed as part of the Aircraft Design Capstone programs, specifically in Phase I, where they worked to develop flying UAV demonstrating subsonic aircraft performance of unique or advanced design features. Past projects have focused on supersonic and highly efficient structural aircraft designs. This student team worked to use the two most well developed aircraft used in phase I for additional research and development in the areas of modeling, simulation, data acquisition and telemetry systems. This student team worked to develop a program and capabilities that will allow future students to test designs in a controlled environment using industry standard best practices. For phase II, this student team worked to further develop the simulator capability and an aircraft health monitoring system. As a first stage of the project, this student team worked to finish refurbishment of one test aircraft to flight-worthy level following a safety of flight review; the student team worked to provide assessments for the review and completed any follow up action. For the second stage of the project, which was completed in parallel to stage one, the student team worked to get appropriate flight permits for FAA flight clearance at AeroTEC's Moses Lake facility for fight testing. For the third stage, the student team worked to create simulation models in key areas of S&C, FEM, and performance for prediction of key flight characteristics and structural dynamics. This student team worked to specify key instrumentation to allow for comparison of flight test data to simulator data. Additionally, this student team worked to develop a low cost aircraft health monitoring system (with support from AeroTEC) that can be installed on the aircraft and record structural health data. Outcomes this student team worked toward include: - Further development of one of the flight test articles that can be used for flight test development programs. -Flight of a UAV under remote control, including the test flight objectives whilst in flight. Execution of a SOF review before flight release, development of the simulation for the test aircraft, and development and test of a health monitoring system. -Definition of data parameters to be captured and relayed during flight.