• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.9-16
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• 2007

Tilt rotor aircraft can take off and land vertically and cruise faster than any other helicopter. A scaled flight demonstration model of a tilt rotor aircraft has been developed by KARI. Because the flight characteristics of tilt rotor are not well known, the developed scaled model would be helpful to evaluate flight control algorithm of a full scale aircraft. The tethered hover test has been performed in order to improve hover flight characteristics of tilt rotor aircraft prior to flight test of the small scaled model. During the tethered hover test, the performance of rotor speed governor, rate SAS (Stability Augmentation System) and control surface mixers have been evaluated. We expect that the results of real flight hover test would be quite same as tethered hover test. Therefore the tethered hover test results will reduce the risk of flight test properly by fixing some of hidden problems which might occur during the flight test. This paper presents the results of tethered hover test in detail and shows how it could be final ground test before flight test. The control mixer gain and rate SAS feedback gains were modified in order to get higher controllability and stability during the tethered hover flight. The rotor governor showed that it could keep rotor RPM constant with very small deviation even during severe pilot collective input change. The tethered hover test results gave pilot and engineers confirmation and experience about the scheduled flight test.

• 한국항공운항학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.85-88
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• 2007

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2009

The ground integration test of Smart UAV has been performed according to the flight test plan. The flight test of full scaled model will be performed followed by 4 DOF ground rig test and a tethered hover test. Smart UAV is the first indigenous tiltrotor aircraft which can fly with fast cruise speed and take off or land vertically. In order to prove the flight control law of Smart UAV, the 40% scaled airplane was developed and have been tested. During flight test of small scaled model, many unique and unexpected problems occurred. After clearing these problems, fully automatic flight test was performed successfully. The experiences about many trouble shooting and resolving the problems would be basic material to avoid the unexpected but similar flight test problems hidden behind of the full scaled Smart UAV. This paper presents the detailed procedures of trouble shootings to solve the unique problems which occurred during the flight test of small scaled tiltrotor UAV.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

The tilt-rotor Smart UAV(Unmanned Air Vehicle) has been developed by KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) for civil purposes. In order to prove the reliabilities of total system of Smart UAV, the series of ground tests were performed including system interface test, aircraft HILS(Hardware In the Loop Simulation) Test, ground power test, 4-DOF (Degrees of Freedom)rig test, and tethered hover test. Many unexpected problems occurred at each ground test. With clearing these problems, the total Smart UAV systems were matured and the airworthiness was proven enough. After complete of additional ground test proposed by FRRB(Flight Readiness Review Board), the first flight test will be performed in this year. This paper presents the procedures and the analysis results of the ground tests for the tilt-rotor Smart UAV.