Design and development of a flight demonstrator : II

• Main Author: Rothkranz, Heiko.
• Other Authors: Chua Soon Keong, Patrick
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Aeronautical engineering::Flight simulation; DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Hardware::Input/output and data communications; DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Fluid mechanics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/16147
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The flight demonstrator model is a system used to demonstrate the principles of control of and interaction between an aircraft’s control surfaces and components, and how and why fluid power is used for this task. Its purpose is to act as an interesting showpiece and to get students interested in aerospace engineering. NTU has many visitors from the secondary schools and high schools in Indone- sia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand visiting the hangar. This flight demonstrator will be an important contribution to inspire and encourage the student visitors to consider to study aerospace engineering in the future. The visitors will be able to ”fly” the demonstrator using a yoke and watch how the aircraft reacts to their input. The flight demonstrator consists of an airplane model which is attached to a pneumatically powered four degree of freedom mechanism, which allows rotational movement around the three axes as well as translational movement along the vertical axis. It is controlled by a computer program which accepts input from a yoke. The software calculates the position and orientation of the model by interfacing to the JSBSim flight simulation library. This simulation is based on a relatively realistic flight dynamics model, taking into account the pilot input, thrust, aerodynamic effects of all control surfaces and even air pocket turbulence etc. From this information, the desired positions of the aircraft and the control surfaces are calculated. Reading feedback from position sensors on the model, a software implemented three-step controller activates the valves to move the model to the desired position. Just like the model is actuated by pneumatics, the model’s control surfaces are actuated by pneumatic cylinders as well.