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Purpose The purpose of this paper is a development of a virtual flight test framework with derivative design optimization. Aircraft manufactures and engineers have been putting significant effort into the design process to lower the cost of development and time to a minimum. In terms of flight tests and aircraft certification, implementing simulation and virtual test techniques may be a sufficient method in achieving these goals. In addition to simulation and virtual test, a derivative design can be implemented to satisfy different market demands and technical changes while reducing development cost and time. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, a derivative design optimization was applied to Expedition 350, a small piston engine powered aircraft developed by Found Aircraft in Canada. A derivative that changes the manned aircraft to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for payload delivery was considered. An optimum configuration was obtained while enhancing the endurance of the UAV. The multidisciplinary design optimization module of the framework represents the optimized configuration and additional parameters for the simulator. These values were implemented in the simulator and generated the aircraft model for simulation. Two aircraft models were generated for the flight test. Findings The optimization process delivered the UAV derivative of Expedition E350, and it had increased endurance up to 21.7 hours. The original and optimized models were implemented into virtual flight test. The cruise performance exhibited less than 10 per cent error on cruise performance between the original model and Pilots Operating Handbook (POH). The dynamic stability of original and optimized models was tested by checking Phugoid, short period, Dutch roll and spiral roll modes. Both models exhibited stable dynamic stability characteristics. Practical implications The original Expedition 350 was generated to verify the accuracy of the simulation data by comparing its result with actual flight test data. The optimized model was generated to evaluate the optimization results. Ultimately, the virtual flight test framework with an aircraft derivative design was proposed in this research. The additional module for derivative design optimization was developed and its results were implemented to commercial off-the-shelf simulators. Originality/value This paper proposed the application of UAV derivative design optimization for the virtual flight test framework. The methodology included the optimization of UAV derivative utilizing MDO and virtual flight testing of an optimized result with a flight simulator.

An integrated methodology for the design of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) derivative has been developed. The proposed methodology utilized the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) for the derivative optimization and utilized flight simulation for virtual flight tests. Derivative design reduced the development time and the use of flight simulator allowed quick verification of the results. In this research, Found Aircraft Expedition E350 aircraft was selected as the baseline for the UAV derivative. Empirical equations were used for the optimization process where the results were organized for easy transformation into a flight simulation model. An in house program was developed to convert raw simulation data for flight-data analysis. The optimization result yielded an improvement on the endurance of the aircraft. The flight simulation result for the original aircraft demonstrated agreement with the chosen aircraft. The application of the process demonstrated that using MDO and flight simulation was a viable method for developing a UAV derivative.