Learning Outcomes
The course shall give the students the opportunity to experience Flight Mechanics and Flight Control under a practical point of view. Several concepts from the fields of aircraft performance, flight dynamics and flight control are implemented in a remotely-controlled unmanned aircraft and studied in the wind tunnel and in flight tests. Examples are for instance drag polar identification, aerodynamic efficiency and load factor, thrust model, aircraft stability and determination of the aerodynamic centre, dynamic model identification, stability and control derivatives, filtering, stability and control augmentation systems as well as autopilots. The projects are carried out in small groups. In addition to the learning objectives of preparing, carrying out and evaluating the projects, the students are trained in scientific work. They learn to present results in scientific papers and to summarise them in talks. This prepares the students for later work as scientists.
Content
In this course, different methods of flight mechanics and flight control are applied. One student group works in one project. By participating in the presentations of the other groups, all students will get an insight into the projects that are carried out by the other groups during the semester. The student groups can work for example on following projects:
- Identification of the thrust model of the airplane via wind-tunnel testing
- Determination of the drag polar based on flights at different velocities
- Determination of the aerodynamic centre based on flight tests with different CG positions
- Identification of stability and control derivatives
- Implementation of a filter for the measurement of wind angles
- Implementation of a SAS for the longitudinal motion
- Implementation of a SAS for the lateral-directional motion
- Implementation of an autopilot for the longitudinal motion
- Implementation of an autopilot for the lateral-directional motion
Description of Teaching and Learning Methods
At the beginning of the semester, there is an introduction to the course and the projects. Subsequently, in another lecture, the flight test vehicle and the hard- and software for the processing of the projects are presented. After these first lectures, the independent group work follows. Each session has 180 minutes. At the beginning of each session, each group presents the progress of the project to all students. During the semester, lectures on scientific work and presentation techniques are held. Halfway through the semester, there is an intermediate presentation of the results of the work so far.
Registration Procedures
Students must register in the secretary office with F5 (Christine Balder, christine.balder@tu-berlin.de) until the first lecture date. The course is limited to 15 students (first come, first serve policy).
