1. Development of the Cranfield University Bulldog flight test facility
- Author
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Ralph P. Tatam, Stephen W. James, Nicholas J. Lawson, G. Invers Rubio, Stephen E. Staines, J. E. Gautrey, Ricardo Correia, and Matthew Partridge
- Subjects
Engineering ,business.industry ,Aerospace Engineering ,02 engineering and technology ,01 natural sciences ,Flight test ,Test (assessment) ,010309 optics ,Engineering management ,020210 optoelectronics & photonics ,Aeronautics ,0103 physical sciences ,Fibre optic sensors ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,Design process ,Instrumentation (computer programming) ,business - Abstract
Cranfield University's National Flying Laboratory Centre (NFLC) has developed a Bulldog light aircraft into a flight test facility. The facility is being used to research advanced in-flight instrumentation including fibre optic pressure and strain sensors. During the development of the test bed, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been used to assist the flight test design process, including the sensor requirements. This paper describes the development of the Bulldog flight test facility, including an overview of the design and certification process, the in-flight data taken using the installed fibre optic sensor systems and lessons learned from the development programme, including potential further applications of the sensors.
- Published
- 2017
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