Preliminary flight test correlations of the X-HALE aeroelastic experiment

Abstract

AbstractAn experimental, remotely-piloted aircraft has been designed and fabricated at University of Michigan that is aeroelastically representative of very flexible aircraft. Known as X-HALE, this Experimental High-Altitude Long-Endurance aircraft exhibits geometrically nonlinear behaviour and displays specific aeroelastic characteristics designed into the experiment. This paper presents the data from the initial flight tests of the lightly instrumented X-HALE Risk Reduction Vehicle that confirm the expected aeroelastic characteristics. This opens the way for future flight tests with a fully-instrumented platform which will provide data to support validation of coupled, nonlinear aeroelastic/flight dynamic codes.