Flight Tests, Performances, and Flight Certification of a Twin-Engine Light Aircraft

Abstract

This paper deals with flight-test activities performed on the P2006T, a twin-engine light aircraft recently designed and produced by Tecnam. Research activities and flight tests have been conducted during the flight certification of the P2006T for the normal category under European regulation CS-23. All the acquired data and flight results presented have been focused on both aircraft certification and aircraft performance, stability, and flight quality measurements. The data have been acquired through light, accurate, and reliable flight instrumentation available at the University of Naples "Federico II" department of aerospace engineering. Some flight data about aircraft leveled speed, stall speed, climb characteristics, and ground performances (takeoff and landing) will be presented. After preliminary flight tests, winglets have been designed and added to the final configuration in order to obtain good climb performances in one-engine inoperative conditions. Accurate stall tests have been performed in all configurations, and the influence of both the entry rate and the load factor on stall speed have been highlighted. Excellent ground performances have been measured with short takeoff and landing distances compared with similar airplanes. All measured flight performances can be considered very good for this aircraft category and have been used to demonstrate aircraft safety and to obtain CS-23 certification.

Stability, flying qualities and longitudinal parameter estimation of a twin-engine CS-23 certified light aircraft

“…The maximum likelihood estimate is thus given as Θ ML = arg min Θ ln p(z|Θ) . (11) Assuming that p(z|Θ) is twice differentiable function, practical application requires solution of the likelihood equation:…”

“…Moreover, in each maneuver the thrust setting has been kept constant. The lift and drag characteristics of the airplane have been determined from a series of steady, level flight data points conducted at pressure altitudes between S/L and 1000 ft [11] and these results have been used to calculate the thrust for each maneuver.…”

“…The details of past experiences are found in the cited references [2][3][4]11]. The flight tests analyzed in the present research took place during the CS-23/FAR 23 certification campaign of the P2006T.…”

“…The P2006T design and flight certification tests have been presented extensively in other papers [10][11][12][13]. Its main features are summarized in Section 2.…”

Collaborative Aircraft Design Methodology using ADAS Linked to CEASIOM

“…1, 2 ADAS was originally intended as an educational tool but, after many improvements occurred to the internal code over the past years, [5][6][7][8][9] it can be absolutely used as a research tool and has played a relevant role for some industrial applications as well.…”