Flight Laboratory

The school of Aerospace, Civil & Mechanical Engineering owns and operates a Cessna 182RG aircraft for flight laboratories, student projects, research and consulting. The aircraft is instrumented with various sensors to allow measurement of the performance and stability characteristics of the aircraft. The aircraft can be used as a test-bed for developing new sensor hardware and algorithms, and for the development of new parameter identifications techniques for building aircraft mathematical models.

Special instrumentation fitted to the aircraft includes an air data boom which enables measurement of angle of attack, sideslip angles, static and dynamic pressure and temperature. In addition to the air data boom, transducers are installed which measure control surface deflections, pitch, roll and yaw rates and normal acceleration. Data is displayed on a palmtop computer and recorded for later analysis.

Contact: Mike Harrap