SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL AEROSPACE REPORTS

A Biweekly Publication of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
VOLUME 44, ISSUE 8 - April 21, 2006

05 AIRCRAFT DESIGN, TESTING AND PERFORMANCE
Includes all stages of design of aircraft and aircraft structures and systems.

Also includes aircraft testing, performance and evaluation, and aircraft and flight simulation technology.

For related information see also 18 Spacecraft Design, Testing and Performance and 39 Structural Mechanics.

For land transportation vehicles see 85 Technology Utilization and Surface Transportation.

20060010240 Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., MA, USA

BEAM Technology Flight Demonstration

Wang, David; Summer Student Research Presentations; August 2005, pp. 48-49; In English; See also 20060010186; NoCopyright; Available from CASI only as part of the entire parent document

As technologies advance, their growing complexity makes them harder to maintain. Detection methods for isolating andidentifying impending problems are needed to balance this complexity. Through comparison of signal pairs from onboardsensors, the Beacon-based Exception Analysis For Multimissions (BEAM) algorithm can identify and help classify deviationsin system operation from a data-trained statistical model. The goal of this task is to mature BEAM and validate its performanceon a flying test bed. A series of F-18 flight demonstrations with BEAM monitoring engine parameters in real time was usedto demonstrate in-the-field readiness. Captured F-18 and simulated F-18 engine data were used in model creation and training.The algorithm was then ported to the embedded system with a data buffering, file writing, and data-time-stamp monitoringshell to reduce the impact of embedded system faults on BEAM’S ability to correctly identify engine faults. Embedded systemtesting identified hardware related restrictions and contributed to iterative improvements in the code’s runtime performance.The system was flown with forced engine flameouts and other pilot induced faults to simulate operation out of the norm.Successful detection of these faults, confirmed through post-flight data analysis, helped BEAM achieve TRL6.Author

Beacons; Technology Utilization; Algorithms; F-18 Aircraft; Flight Tests

Source: NASA