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.