Design and development of civil aircraft for commuter role is a relatively new effort in our country. National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) are developing a short haul, twin turboprop commuter aircraft, named Saras. We are currently testing two prototypes (PT1 and PT2) of Saras in flight. This paper gives some details about the data acquisition and processing. Subsequently, some aspects of analyzed data are highlighted by using x2018;classicalx2019; techniques wherein steady state aircraft maneuvers are used to generate data. Design expectations of various characteristics are mainly based on wind tunnel test results and were supplemented, wherever required, by panel method computations as well as engineering estimates. The results of flight data analyses are compared with design data. It can be inferred that flight data show reasonably good match with design data for elevator power, power-off drag polar whereas trim tab adequacy is not borne out in flight as per design data. The other two characteristics of engine torque resulting in zero thrust and that of rudder blowback are purely results of flight testing for which no results were available from design data.
展开▼
