A UAS Flight Test Engineering Course Modeled on Professional Methodologies and Practices
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2019, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. A flight test engineering course for aerospace engineering students was updated to use Unmanned Air Systems as the class of System Under Test. The course was structured to give students a complete overview of the entire flight test engineering process using professional methodologies and practices, from the beginning safety reviews all the way to the final data collection and processing and presentation of results. The technical objective of the course was for students to be instructed in and conduct professional test planning and conduct to safely obtain the required performance data for an aircraft that does not have any published performance data. Students were organized into four test teams and were successful in first creating the required safety and testing planning documents, passing Safety and Technical Review Boards, and then finally preparing the aircraft and performing the necessary flight tests. Testing to determine level acceleration performance, Specific Excess Power, and climb performance was conducted. Results presented in the paper determine the Specific Excess Power and best climb speed for the RMRC Anaconda aircraft. Student evaluations and instructor recommendations based upon lessons learned are also presented.