R, applicable for fighter, transport and unmanned air vehicles/micro air vehicles simulations. The simulator uses state of the art modeling and simulation technologies to validate various design and flying quality concepts. NALSim is developed such that it is scalable and low cost. The paper presents the simulator architecture and its application for flying qualities. A novel non linear Least Squares optimization based methodology is proposed for efficient handling quality studies.
This paper discusses the development of a ground based variable stability flight simulator. The simulator is designed to meet the pilot training requirements on flying qualities. Such a requirement arose from a premier Flight-Testing School of the Indian Air Force. The simulator also provides a platform for researchers and aerospace students to understand aircraft dynamics, conduct studies on aircraft configuration design, flight mechanics, guidance & control and to evaluate autonomous navigation algorithms. The aircraft model is built using open source data. The simulator is strengthened with optimization techniques to configure variable aircraft stability and control characteristics to fly and evaluate the various aspects of flying qualities. The methodology is evaluated through a series of engineer and pilot-in-the-loop simulations for varying aircraft stability conditions. The tasks chosen are the proven CAT A HUD tracking tasks. The simulator is also reconfigurable to host an augmented fighter aircraft that can be evaluated by the test pilot team for the functional integrity as a fly-through model.
<p>The ease and precision with which pilot is able to handle the designated task determines the aircraft’s handling qualities. Accordingly, the most common methodology for determining aircraft’s handling qualities is through pilot opinions or through questionnaires. These subjective means of analysis is not reliable as the sole source of judgments. Quantitative metrics to analyse the task difficulty based on pilot’s performance, supplemented with subjective decision, can provide better insight into pilot workload levels and in turn the aircraft’s handling qualities. The application of few objective performance measurement techniques to flight data of a high performance fighter aircraft is discussed. Pilot/aircraft’s performance under different configurations is analysed. Analysis results show that pilots usually tend to give more priority to pitch axis in case of dual axis tracking task. And pilots are therefore more aggressive in accomplishing pitch axis tracking task than in roll. Workload assessments were also performed by comparing the results of single axis tracking experiments conducted using a high fidelity flight simulator with the flight data. It is seen that pilot’s aggressiveness levels in controlling the roll control inceptor is significantly less, with improved tracking accuracy when exercised as the primary task.</p><p><strong>Defence Science Journal, Vol. 66, No. 1, January 2016, pp. 03-10, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.66.9196</strong></p>
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