Stability and control flight testing - some of the test instrumentation requirements

Abstract

The scope of stability and control flight testing at R.A.E. Bedfold and the type of physical measurements are briefly reviewed. Suggested overall accuracies for the quantities, including the effects of transducer/recording element and readout system, are stated. Particular emphasis is put on the need for good instrumentation dynamic characteristics and the need for accurate dynamic calibrations of the instruments. The overall accuracies achieved using photographic trace recording systems is of the order 2% - 3%, whilst 1% is required and exceptionally, for special tests, 0.2%. The use of digital/magnetic tape systems looks attractive to meet these requirements, but flight experience has shown that the potential accuracy of ths system may not be achieved. The need for proving new sophisticated instrumentation systems in real flight environments is stressed. Paper prepared for the Thirtieth AGARD Flight Mechanics Panel on Flight Test Instrumentation - Montreal, Canada.