Development of an Unmanned Air Research Vehicle for Supermaneuverability Studies

With the advent of all-aspect missiles and highly maneuverable threat aircraft, maintaining air superiority in the future will require innovative solutions to current aerodynamic and propulsive limitations. Unmanned Air Vehicles UAVs provide an excellent experimental alternative for supermaneuverability investigations, providing dynamic flight measurements not available in wind tunnels. A 18 geometrically scaled F-16A was constructed and test flown in order to provide a proven, highly maneuverable of airspeed, angle of attack, sideslip angle, and control surface deflection. A seven-channel telemetry system was designed to transmit the flight measurement data to a ground station for display and recording. Follow-on research will complete the on-board systems and perform a baseline evaluation for comparison with future flight tests with varied control configurations. jhd