Aircraft Design and Evaluation

The CSIR has developed a number of aircraft, starting with the SARA series of gyrocopters, the all carbon fibre military turboprop trainer ACE and the Hummingbird, a very low-speed observation light aircraft.

The capabilities that the CSIR offer in this area are:
• Conceptual design
• Performance and handling predictions
• Powerplant and propeller performance optimisation
• Multi-Disciplinary Optimisation optionally utilising CEASIOM, a European aircraft synthesis and optimisation code
• Detailed aircraft design
• Aerodynamic characterisation through the testing of scaled models in one of the many wind tunnels or through computational methods
• Modern design of experiment techniques are used to drastically reduce the number of wind tunnel tests required
• High fidelity man-in-the-loop simulations of both fixed and rotary winged aircraft for validation of flight data and the evaluation and optimising of handling qualities

The CSIR also has the capability to simulate aircraft missions in realistic Sub-Saharan African threat environments. The CSIR has a number of engineers trained in flight test techniques. Flight test programs can be drawn up and executed by the team for any aircraft ranging from small unmanned aircraft to supersonic jets. The coordination of the flight tests can be carried out by these engineers.

The CSIR has recently developed a strong focus on Design of Experiment and system identification techniques. These use statistical methods to build mathematical models of aircraft behaviour from flight test data.