PhD THESIS ABSTRACT
„Contribution to the aircrafts preparation and instrumentation for flight testing”
Author: eng. Marin FIRĂNESCU
Email: mfiranescu@ftc.ro; tel: +40-0723444576
Supervisor: GL.FL.Air(r) univ. prof. eng. Ion FUIOREA, PhD
Having a strong practical character, the thesis brings up the special problem of the
preparation and instrumentation of the aircraft for flight testing, as part of the testing and
evaluation process, focused on the methods and techniques utilized by the author durring the
IAR-99 HAWK aircraft tests regarding the experimental determination of the flight
characteristics.
The work consists of 6 chapters.
The first chapter presents a critical analysis of the manner in which the flight testing
activity was developed in the scientific works.
The chapter 2 approaches the flight tests of the aircraft presenting, in an original way, the
main aspects of this activity and bringing up the majore ideas related to the particularity and
importance of the activities which must be accomplished in the instrumentation process of the
aircraft, emphasizing, in the same time, the statute of the instrumentation engineer in the test
team.
Based on the conclusions of the previous chapter, chapter 3 is dedicated to the problems
associated to the development and optimization of the instrumentation and calibration methods
and technologies wich were implemented by the author on the IAR-99 HAWK aircraft, in order
to obtain the parameters of interest involved in the experimental determination of the flight
characteristics of aircraft, being made, at the same time, a critical price-quality analysis of these
methods.
Chapter 4 is dedicated to the aspects related to the comparative evaluation of the
experimental results obtained during utilization of different instrumentation methods and
technologies for determination of the flight characteristics of the IAR-99 HAWK aircraft. It was
evaluated the global accuracy wich was reeched by a DGPS device, type Leica 1230GG,
mounted on the aircraft, for the kinematic and trajectoty elements determination inflight process,
in the angle of attak sensor correction flight tests, in the total temperature sensor corrections
flight tests, in the static pressure probe corrections flight tests and in the estimation of the
measure errors in the determination of the flight characteristics process.
Chapter 5 approaches a difficult matter as well as actual, as it is the flutter flight test,
focused on instrumentation methods and techniques used to support these types of tests,
presenting the author’s contributions to the evaluation of the attenuation of inflight vibrations of
the IAR-99 HAWK aircraft, during some tests performed under a partnershipp contract with the
Military Technical Academy in the European project TAURUS.
Finally, chapter 6 presents the conclusions regarding the results of the work and makes a
sinthesys of the author’s original contributions.