SAWE Report - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Validation of an aircraft design such as this is fairly hard to accomplish with traditional models.
Traditional wind tunnel testing is limited to the availability of supersonic wind tunnels. Because
of this, the Cal Poly Pheagle Flight Simulator was used to evaluate handling qualities, ground
handling due to landing gear placement, up-and-away tasks, and low speed performance.
A non-linear table lookup scheme was incorporated in the computer simulation to lookup the
DATCOM derived stability and control derivatives. These derivatives were used to develop
tables for the major derivatives as functions of Mach number and angle of attack. The simulator
and flight cab are shown as Figure 10.8 and Figure 10.9, respectively.
Figure 10.8 - Pheagle Simulator
Figure 10.9 - Flight Cab and Instruments
The static flight cab allows the pilot to see the a full panel of operational instruments as well as
feel up to 50 pounds of force on the stick. The stick used was that from an F-15 Eagle. Graphics
models were incorporated for pilot cues and situational awareness as seen in Figure 10.10. A full
HUD was also incorporated and used as illustrated in Figure 10.11. Stick forces and dynamics
were approximated based on existing information from current fighter aircraft.
Figure 10.10 - Graphics and Environment
Figure 10.11 - Heads up Display
Results of validation proved that the DFCS control laws would need to be developed for the
aircraft to be flyable in all flight regimes.
70