Friday, January 8, 2010

Flight Testing of the Meridian UAS in Antarctica is Successful!


McMurdo Station, Antarctica. We have begun flight testing of the Meridian UAS in Antarctica with very good results. We completed the first flight of the Meridian at around 11:00 pm December 31, 2009, which was a fantastic way to celebrate the New Year. We performed takeoff and three circuits around the pattern in manual mode to trim the aircraft prior to turning the autopilot on. We then turned the autopilot on and entered a 450m radius orbit at 120 kts. The aircraft tracked airspeed and ground track very well. The altitude varied somewhat, but that is to be expected considering the small size of the circle. Essentially, this verifies that the controller is stable and that the aircraft can make the 1km grid spacing required for the mapping missions. Further analysis of the flight data will investigate the performance of the controller and may lead to possible improvements.

In addition to verifying the autopilot system functionality, a drag cleanup was implemented on the aircraft after flights in Dugway showed very high power requirements. The average throttle setting in Dugway at 110 kts was approximately 85%. The average throttle setting in Antarctica for 120 kts was around 45-50%. There are some other variables involved, but this essentially shows a substantial decrease in drag from the Dugway configuration.

1 comment:

  1. USA complete its first Meridian flight in Antarctica. This is really great experience for pilot. The autopilot system of this aircraft is working properly at that time.
    How to Travel to Antarctica

    ReplyDelete