A Turbine-powered UAV Controls Testbed

The latest version of the NASA Flying Controls Testbed (FLiC) integrates commercial-off-the-shelf components including airframe, autopilot, and a small turbine engine to provide a low cost experimental flight controls testbed capable of sustained speeds up to 200 mph. The series of flight tests leading up to the demonstrated performance of the vehicle in sustained, autopiloted 200 mph flight at NASA Wallops Flight Facility's UAV runway in August 2006 will be described. Earlier versions of the FLiC were based on a modified Army target drone, AN/FQM-117B, developed as part of a collaboration between the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate at Fort Eustis, Virginia and NASA Langley Research Center. The newer turbine powered platform (J-FLiC) builds on the successes using the relatively smaller, slower and less expensive unmanned aerial vehicle developed specifically to test highly experimental flight control approaches with the implementation of C-coded experimental controllers. Tracking video was taken during the test flights at Wallops and will be available for presentation at the conference. Analysis of flight data from both remotely piloted and autopiloted flights will be presented. Candidate experimental controllers for implementation will be discussed. It is anticipated that flight testing will resume in Spring 2007 and those results will be included, if possible.