FLIGHT PATH RECONSTRUCTION ON FLIGHT TEST DATA OF A LIGHTWEIGHT HELICOPTER

This thesis aims to describe the Flight Path Reconstruction (FPR) process based on flight test data of a new lightweight, multi-purpose helicopter. FPR is a procedure that must be performed during the system identification process to increase the quality of measured data and ensure a more reliable aerodynamic parameter estimation. The thesis aims to determine an error model for several aerodynamic sensors by comparing the measured aerodynamic parameters with the reconstructed flow angles. The first phase of the project involved pre-processing the available flight test data. First, it was necessary to select which signals, among all that were recorded, were of interest to the project. Subsequently, those signals have been converted into MATLAB tables as all the scripts used are written in MATLAB language. Some signals required additional conversion as they were coded in ARINC 429 protocol. The next step of the work involved slicing data from every flight into single manoeuvres, these were then categorised based on the type, speed and altitude. The second part of the thesis focuses on Flight Path Reconstruction, a lengthy and iterative process that made extensive use of the Output Error Method. The project was conducted during an exchange program at ZHAW (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) in Winterthur, Switzerland, from April to June 2024. This thesis is part of a wider project whose main goal is to develop a high-fidelity simulation model.