An Introduction and Comparison of Emerging Flight Test Parameter Identification Techniques

摘要

Multiple challenges face a flight test program interested in performing parameter identification (PID). Easy implementation and repeatability are some of the common concerns. NASA has long been a prominent con-tributor in PID advancements. This paper intends to provide an introduc-tory transition to the emerging System Identification Programs for Aircraft (SIDPAC)~1 software package. SIDPAC is designed to require less user in-tervention and achieve repeatable results. A good practice for new software is to compare its results to pre-existing results; therefore, previously col-lected and pEst analyzed longitudinal flight data from Calspan's Variable Stability Learjet will be used for comparison. In this paper, the stability and control derivatives estimated using SIDPAC will be shown to provide either comparable parameter estimates to pEst, or more accurate estimates when the pEst results are believed to be erroneous.