Flight Tests of the Low Speed Characteristics

1
Flight Tests of the Low Speed Characteristics of
a Hypersonic Waverider Configuration Accurate
Automation Corporation, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Innovation

• Accurate Automation has expanded the flight
  control system capabilities of LoFLYTE for
  unstable configurations and mission scenarios.

Accomplishments

• Conducted a series of flight tests of the
  LoFLYTE aircraft, with the goals of
• characterizing LoFLYTEs aerodynamics and
  evaluating possible modifications and
  enhancements to the aircraft,
• exploring LoFLYTEs flight envelope,
• characterizing its SERN nozzle, and
• eliminating the Dutch roll phenomenon
• Evaluated LoFLYTEs neural adaptive flight
  control system, with the goal verifying the
  controllers genericity
• Compared the real flight data with simulated
  configurations
• Developed a flight test program plan to ensure
  safe and efficient conduct of the flight test
  experiments

LoFLYTE Night Taxi Test at Edwards AFB
Government/Science Applications

• Research applications include
• Subsonic target drone applications,
• Mach 2 to 4 ramjet powered vehicles, and
• Mach 4 to 8 dual mode ram/scramjet powered
  vehicles.
• The United States Navy, in its Mission Needs
  Statement, has identified the requirements for
  hypersonic vehicle for military missions.

Commercialization

• Fully developing the low-speed characteristics of
  a hypersonic waverider configuration with an
  advanced neural vehicle management system
  provides several near-term applications of the
  resulting technologies to subsonic, supersonic,
  and hypersonic flight vehicles.
• The benefits of this program exhibit tremendous
  longer term potential applications to operational
  military and civilian vehicles.

Points of Contact NASA LaRC, J. Larry Hunt,
[phone] Accurate Automation, Dr. Richard
Saeks, [phone] 1998 SBIR Phase I
NAS1-98113