A Review of Wind Tunnel Based Virtual Flight Testing Techniques for Evaluation of Flight Control Systems

Table 2

Comparisons between VFT and traditional evaluation methods.

Methods for evaluating FCS	Numerical simulation	SILS	HILS	PILS	VFT	Flight test
Software	M	R	R	M or R	R	R
Hardware	M	M or R	R	M or R	R	R
Loading moments on control surfaces	M	M	M	M	RAS	R
Aerodynamic forces and moments	M	M	M	M	RAS	R
Attitude motions	M	M	M	M	RAS	R
Translational motions	M	M	M	M	M	R

M: mathematical model; R: real; and RAS: real but airflow is simulated; the “RAS” means that the loading moments on control surfaces/aerodynamic forces and moments/attitude motions are real like that of flight test, except that the airflow in wind tunnel is simulated and cannot get that real like the airflow in the air.