Public Affairs, Volume 63, Number 67
Serving the community of Edwards Air Force Base California www.edwards.af.mil - www.facebook.com/EdwardsAirForceBase
Nov. 11, 2016
Adaptive flight control tests benefit TPS, college students By Christopher Ball 412th Test Wing Public Affairs
A recent test management project helped not only to validate an adaptive flight control system, but provided valuable educational experience to military and university students. The L1 adaptive control system was developed and built by a professor and students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and tested by a team of students at the U. S. Air Force Test Pilot School here. According to Dr. Chris Cotting, TPS solicits government customers and academia looking for different sorts of projects and ideas that they would like to have flight tested. “We tell them, basically, ‘You give us your concept, and we’ll bring it in and flight test it right here at the school.’” “We provide flight hours, planning, data processing and reduction for someone who might have an idea that they couldn’t figure out how to put on an airplane and flight test otherwise.” The L1 adaptive controller was developed and built by professor Naira Hovakimyan and graduate students Kasey
The X-15A-3 rocket plane flies over Edwards Air Force base during a mission in the 1960s. The aircraft crashed in 1967, killing pilot Maj. Michael J. Adams. According to a NASA report, the X-15A-3 crashed “due to stable, albeit non-robust adaptive controller.” The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot school recently validated a much more robust adaptive controller which was built by a team at the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana. The controller is designed to adapt to any fly-by-wire aircraft. (Archive photo courtesy of NASA)
Ackerman and Javier Navarro of UIUC. Flight testing was accomplished by a TPS team consisting of staff advisor Dr. Chris Cotting and five students – test pilots Capt. Daniel Edelstein, Italian Air Force Capt. Raffaele Odesco, French Air Force Maj. Nicolas Langevin and flight test engineers Capt. Craig Porter and Capt. Clark McGehee. Hovakimyan said her team developed the system primarily with unmanned or remotely piloted vehicles in mind. “The technology is developing rapidly,” she said. “Wind tunnel testing for each mod-
el and variant would be cost-prohibitive. “The goal was to develop a controller that would adapt to changing conditions, compensate and provide predictable performance,” she said. Cotting said the professor had spent a lot of time working on the theory but had not been able to actually see how the controller performed during flight test. “I told her it looks like a great idea. We’d be happy to flight test it for you as long as you can build a controller that See TPS, page 2
AF approves request to realign AFTC assets under Arnold AFB
From Air Force Test Center
The Air Force has approved an Organizational Change Request to realign selected Air Force Test Center operations and facilities from several separate locations under one commander at Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Tennessee. This change consolidates the current capabilities of the AEDC at Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee; the Hypersonic Combined Test Force, which is currently part of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, California; and all the current capabilities of the 96th Test Group, headquartered at Holloman AFB, New Mexico; and the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin AFB, Florida. The 96th TG and the MCL are currently part of the 96th Test Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida.
Additional capabilities to be consolidated are located at the Federal Research Center at White Oak, Maryland and operating locations at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico; Moffett Federal Airfield, California; Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; and the Army’s White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. As part of this action the 96th Test Group and 796th Test Support Squadron at Holloman will be inactivated and will then be activated as the 704th Test Group and 704th Test Support Squadron, respectively. The duty locations, manpower authorizations and resources of the 704th TG and 704th TSS will be exactly the same as the inactivated 96th TG and 796th TSS. Only the parent unit will change – from the 96th TW to AEDC. This re-
(U.S. Air Force graphic)
alignment will only impact the administrative reporting chain of the affected organizations and will not require the See AFTC, page 3