AFTI/F-16 Flight Test Results and Lessons

Ishmael, Stephen D. and McMonagle, Donald R. (1983) AFTI/F-16 Flight Test Results and Lessons. Technical Report NASA TM-84920, Research Engineering, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

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Abstract

Advanced fighter technologies are evolving into highly complex systems. Flight controls are being integrated with advanced avionics to achieve a total system. The advanced fighter technology integration (AFTI) F-16 aircraft is an example of a highly complex digital flight control system integrated with advanced avionics and cockpit. The architecture of these new systems involves several general issues. The use of dissimilar backup modes if the primary system fails requires the designer to trade off system simplicity and capability. This tradeoff is evident in the AFTI/F-16 aircraft with its limited stability and fly-by-wire digital flight control systems. In case of a generic software failure, the backup or normal mode must provide equivalent envelope protection during the transition to degraded flight control. The complexity of systems like the AFTI/F-16 systems defines a second design issue, which can be divided into two segments: the effect on testing, and the pilot's ability to act correctly in the limited time available for cockpit decisions. The large matrix of states possible with the AFTI/F-16 flight control system illustrates the difficulty of both testing the system and choosing real-time pilot actions. The third generic issue involves possible reductions in the users' reliability expectations where false single-channel information can be displayed at the pilot-vehicle interface while the redundant set remains functional.

EPrint Type:	NASA Technical Memorandum
Keywords:	Multimode control laws, Asynchronous, Expert systems, Degraded flight control, Simplex errors
Subjects:	(01 - 09) Aeronautics: (08) Aircraft Stability And Control Aircraft/Project: F-15
ID Code:	596
Deposited On:	03 Febuary 2006
Additional Information:	30 pages. This paper was presented at the Twenty-Seventh Symposium of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots at Beverly Hills, California, September 28 to October 1, 1983.