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In March of 2010

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NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

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began flying its latest

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flight research platform.

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The F-18 Full-scale Advanced Systems Testbed

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vehicle or F-18 FAST.

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The concept was initially developed with

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the F-18 High Angle of Attack Research Vehicle

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or HARV.

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For the HARV project

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a new research flight control system computer

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was added to a standard F-18 system.

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This research system allows for

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quick development of experimental

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control laws while maintaining the

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production system as a safe fallback.

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By limiting the robust F-18 fighter

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to a restricted slow speed flight envelope

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special safety could be maintained.

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The original HARV research system was

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limited in compute power and memory

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The Advanced Aeroelastic Wing (AAW) project

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upgraded the research processor.

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The AAW project investigated the use wing

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warping to achieve rolling performance

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as a lighter-weight wing structure.

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The AAW program added a significant amount

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of load and wing deflection instrumentation

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to the vehicle.

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The same AAW aircraft was once again upgraded for

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the FAST project.

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A second research computer dubbed

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the Airborne Research Test System Four

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where yard score was added.

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The yard system allows for direct auto

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coating of control mount algorithms

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from an analysis friendly computer environment.

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This makes it much easier to analyze

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and modify experimental control laws.

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In addition to advanced controls research,

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the FAST system allows for

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stimulating system failures.

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These simulated failures prevent challenging

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problems for the advanced systems

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which are required to restore normal flying

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characteristics and allow for a safe landing.

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One example might be a frozen control surface.

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In this case the right stabilator was disabled,

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which results in an predictable cross couple behavior.

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Because pitch control authority is

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significantly reduced by the failure

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you can see the altitude loss that occurs

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during a roll maneuver.

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in the extreme case, all primary aerodynamic surfaces

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can be disabled and propulsion only control can be

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investigated.

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In this case the speed brake

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was deployed for additional control.

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Without the other aerodynamic
services

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and oscillation and disengagement occurred.

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but with an advanced controller

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good flying characteristics can be achieved

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using only engine propulsion.

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That was a good one.

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The FAST vehicle paves the way for

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many important flight research experiments.

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This system will be used to investigate integrated

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active control with structural feedback

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and constraints.

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The work will help to enable a class

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of futuristic lightweight vehicles

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that are not possible today.

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Using the F-18 FAST vehicle NASA Dryden

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Flight Research Center is continuing to