Validation of scaled flight testing

Abstract

Today’s aeronautical industry has to explore more than ever new technologies and disruptive configurations in order to accelerate the reduction of its environmental footprint. To de-risk new solutions that have an impact on the Overall Aircraft Dynamic Behavior, Scaled Flight Testing features potential interesting assets with respect to existing Ground Test facilities. However, before implementing such a new approach within industry programs, a thorough assessment is needed to quantitatively assessment the benefits. To this end, a consortium made of Airbus, CIRA, NLR and ONERA launched a validation initiative in the frame of the EU Program Clean Sky 2. For several years, the partners concurrently worked on theoretical aspects as well as on the development of the Scaled Flight Demonstrator that is a scaled version of an existing civil transport aircraft with specific design characteristics. Before the successful Qualification Flights, the team completed Wind Tunnel Tests and different series of taxi tests in order to de-risk the system. Also, a step-by-step method has been defined to trace how variations associated to scale affect the aircraft flight dynamics. Last, it must be noted that simulations based on Wind Tunnel data predict similar behavior between the full scale reference airplane and the SFD.