Flight Test Simulation and Testing

Center for Aerospace Engineering Research

Problem:

New flight-training devices purchased by Embry-Riddle did not meet the University's extensive needs for simulation of all phases of its flight-training program.

Solution:

Researchers at the center captured accurate data from an operational Cessna 172 in flight to enhance the simulators' operational fidelity.

The original devices successfully simulated point-to-point flight, but did not meet the University's rigorous needs for taxiing, take-offs, slow flight maneuvers, stalls, spins, and landing.

In order to produce a simulator that "flies" like an operational aircraft, the software program must be fed data that has been extracted from flight tests of an actual Cessna 172. Additionally, a prerequisite for Level-6 certification of the simulator by the Federal Aviation Administration is that the information in the software is traceable to a specific aircraft.

Researchers did this by placing transducers on the various control parts of the aircraft, which transmitted electronic data into the computer during flight. As a result, Frasca International, which makes the flight training devices, has used the new data to upgrade their simulators.