Red Bull- Aircraft Dynamics Measurement

Overview

Every year one of the biggest and most exciting air races takes place in a spectacular part of the world. This competition tests the speed, precision and skll of the world's best aerobatics and their planes.

The race involves piloting fast agile planes around the most difficult flight courses in any aerobatics competition. Pylons, tight loops and turns are negotiated at speeds of up to 230mph while withstanding forces of up to 12g.

Summary

FSL were required to develop a “flight testing” system. Our engineers developed a high G force FSLPak-4i which incorporates NovAtel’s SPAN inertial technology into a compact and light design weighing just 1.7kg. In “flight tests” the system recorded 12G dynamics with centimetre and sub-arc minute precision.  The aircraft was fitted with a 512C antenna and FSL’s Ring Laser Gyro inside a lightweight housing. The GPS was also housed in a lightweight housing in a special certified compartment behind the pilot’s seat.

The centimetre and sub-mil precision at 100Hz translated itself into high speed precision animation for television broadcasting. TV presenters were able to overlay historical and actual aircraft runs for step-by-step performance comparisons.

The software utilized was Pi Research’s Toolbox Suite which is more normally seen in motorsport. However it was an excellent tool for presenting high speed dynamics data in real-time and post-processing by way of live radio links between the aircraft and ground.