Aircraft and Rotorcraft System Identification: Engineering Methods with Flight Test Examples, Second Edition [Bookshelf

Abstract

This book is largely devoted to the practical engineering aspects of aircraft system identification using real-world flight tests, and it indeed includes an impressive array of examples. The text presents examples involving 17 different airframes, including conventional fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, tilt-rotors, vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft, and small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The author is most well known in the rotorcraft community due to his affiliation with the U.S. Army AeroFlightDynamics Directorate (AFDD) and their involvement in numerous military and civil rotorcraft programs over the last few decades. The frequency-domain approach is well suited for rotorcraft system identification and is prevalent throughout the rotorcraft industry. Although the examples in the text are weighted more toward rotorcraft, it should be noted that the second edition includes a variety of new fixed-wing examples, making the latest edition more suitable for the general aircraft community. The material in the book is very much linked to the software package Comprehensive Identification from Frequency Responses (CIFER), which was developed by the author's group at AFDD. Several chapters in the book have a direct correlation with specific components of the software, and virtually all of the example results are produced by CIFER. The second edition has been updated to be compatible with the latest version of CIFER, including its updated user interface. The text was never intended to be a software user’s manual, but since the examples in the book are inherently tied to CIFER, reference to the detailed operation of the software is inevitable. In general, the improvements in the software also translate into improved readability and accessibility of the text.