Overview

Aircraft System Identification: Theory and Practice

by Vladislav Klein and Eugene A. Morelli

This book provides a comprehensive explanation of both the theoretical underpinnings and the practical application of aircraft modeling based on experimental data – also known as aircraft system identification. Much of the material comes from the authors’ own research and teaching activities at NASA Langley involving real-world applications of system identification to aircraft. The book uses actual flight test and wind tunnel data for examples, and is intended to be a resource for researchers and practicing engineers, as well as a textbook for postgraduate and senior-level courses.

All aspects of the aircraft system identification problem are covered: model postulation, experiment design, instrumentation, data compatibility analysis, model structure determination, state and parameter estimation, and model validation. The methods described in the book have been successfully applied to projects such as flight envelope expansion for new or modified aircraft, verification and correction of results from wind-tunnel tests or analytic methods such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), control system design and refinement, stability analysis, simulation development, flying qualities assessment, and accident investigation, among others.

The book includes SIDPAC (System IDentification Programs for AirCraft), version 2.0, a software toolbox written in MATLAB^®. SIDPAC is composed of many different tools that use a variety of methods to perform tasks related to aircraft system identification, experiment design, signal processing, data analysis, and modeling. The methods implemented in SIDPAC are explained in the book, so that the reader can apply SIDPAC tools with confidence to solve system identification problems. SIDPAC was first released to the public in January 2001, and is currently in use at over 80 different organizations in government, industry, and academia.