Commercial Simulator Applications in Flight Test Training

Abstract

AbstractThree different applications of a commercially available desktop flight simulator were demonstrated in flight test training. The first case examined the visual reproduction of spins executed at National Research Council (NRC) Canada in the CT-133 aircraft. The reproduced in-cockpit views were found in agreement with video footage recorded during the spins, while the characteristics of the reconstructed spin flight path were found to be in qualitative agreement to the values resulting from the flight data analysis. The second case considered the testing of basic attitude hold control systems coupled around the simulator’s Boeing 747 flight model. The resulting time responses of the pitch and bank angles were compared to those of the aircraft’s linear state-space model and were found to predict satisfactory the stable gain cases. Finally a simulated control room environment was setup using the flight simulator and other modeling software through a local network, providing real-time plotting of fligh...