Date of Award

12-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Sciences

First Advisor

Brian Kish

Second Advisor

Ralph Kimberlin

Third Advisor

Steven Cusick

Fourth Advisor

Daniel Batcheldor

Abstract

Aerodynamic modeling is an important part of aircraft design and of aircraft testing. Generally, this is done through CFD models and Wind Tunnel tests prior to the aircrafts first flight but building the models using flight test data is also very important. It is used to verify theoretical models generated from the computer and wind tunnel tests. They are also useful for building simulators, particularly those in modeling and analyzing airport traffic patterns. These tests used a Piper Pa-28-161 Warrior II owned by the Florida Tech Flight Test Engineering program. It has a 160hp Lycoming engine. The test pilot was Dave Schwarz with Nicholas Casciola and Gary Greeman acting as Flight Test Engineers. The tests took place on April 27th, 2018 East of the Orlando-Melbourne International Airport (KMLB). The stability and control parameters were estimated using least squares, equation error, stepwise, and output-error regression methods. These parameters were not accurately estimated here due to several reasons. The first being the lack of a filter on several sets of input data. The next would be that no initial heading was recorded at the start of each maneuver; this means that yaw angle could not be found. The final piece to improve the models is to correct for the sensor locations in the aircraft. If the sensors are not over the cg of the aircraft, then corrections need to be made to adjust for the inertial effects of the moment arm caused by that distance.

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