GA-USTAR phase 1: Development and flight testing of the baseline upset and stall research aircraft

The General Aviation Upset and Stall Testing Aircraft Research (GA-USTAR) project described in this paper aims to develop a dynamically-scaled, Reynolds number corrected, GA aircraft to provide validation data sets for the stall/upset aerodynamic model development. This paper describes the first of three phases of the GA-USTAR project, where the baseline aircraft was developed such that future modifications could be performed to dynamically-scale and then perform Reynolds number corrections to the aircraft. From the possible GA aircraft radio control models available, a 1/5-scale model Cessna 182 was chosen. The aircraft was first built as a radio control model with modifications being made to support future activities. The aircraft was instrumented with a high-fidelity data acquisition system, which was then used to collect baseline flight characteristics of the aircraft. Extensive flight testing was carried out with flight maneuvers performed according flight simulator qualification standards. A sampling of these maneuvers together with all aircraft state details is presented. These maneuvers included idle decent (gliding), elevator-induced phugoid dynamics, roll rate response, rudder response, stall (clean) with low rate elevator deflections, stall (clean) with high rate elevator deflections, and finally stall (half flaps) with high rate elevator deflections. The results presented show high quality aircraft state data that in the future will be used for validation of flight simulation aerodynamic models.