Research on Aerodynamic Center Identification and Flight Test of Electric Aircraft

Abstract

As the future development direction of green aviation, electric aircraft has attracted wide attention from various countries.Most electric airplanes adopt a large aspect ratio aerodynamic layout, and the wings deform elastically during flight.The results of the wind tunnel test cannot reflect the actual flight requirements well.This article is to determine the center of gravity range of light electric aircraft and get the accurate aerodynamic center position in flight.Taking a certain type of carbon fiber composite material electric aircraft as an example, a mathematical model of steady straight and level flight and steady circling maneuvering flight is established.Based on the test data obtained from the circling maneuver flight test, the physical algorithm is used to identify the actual aerodynamic center and compare it with the center position measured by the wind tunnel experiment.The results show that the aerodynamic center position of the aircraft identified by the circling maneuver flight test is higher than the result of the wind tunnel test.In other words, for the electric aircraft with large aspect ratio and using a large number of composite materials, the actual aerodynamic center position in the flight process is different from the wind tunnel test results, and the center position identified by the physical solution algorithm is closer to the actual state.

Keywords

• electric aircraft
• aerodynamic center
• hovers
• physical algorithm
• center of gravity
• parameter identification