1.5µm Lidar anemometer for True Air Speed, Angle Of Sideslip and Angle Of Attack measurements onboard Piaggio P180 aircraft

B. Augère (1) , B. Besson (1) , D. Fleury (1) , D. Goular (1) , C. Planchat (1) , M. Valla (1)

1 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Palaiseau]

Lidar (Light detection and ranging) is a well established measurement method for the prediction of atmospheric motions through velocity measurements. Recent advances in 1.5µm Lidars show that the technology is mature, offers great ease of use and is reliable and compact. A 1.5µm airborne Lidar appears to be a good candidate for airborne in-flight measurement systems: it allows to measure remotely, outside aircraft aerodynamic disturbance, an absolute air speed (no need of calibration) with a great precision and in all aircraft flight domain. In the frame work of the EU AIM2 project, Onera task has consisted in the development and testing of a 1.5µm anemometer sensor for in-flight airspeed measurements. Objective of this work is to demonstrate that the 1.5µm Lidar sensor can increase the quality of the data acquisition procedure for the aircraft flight test certification. This paper presents the 1.5µm anemometer sensor dedicated to in-flight airspeed measurements and describes the flight tests performed successfully onboard the Piaggio P180. Lidar air data have been graphically compared to the air data provided by the aircraft Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) in the reference frame of the Iidar sensor head. Very good agreement of True Air Speed (TAS), Angle Of Sideslip (AOS) and Angle Of Attack (AOA) was observed.

Keywords: 1.5 µM TECHNOLOGY; ANEMOMETER; IN-FLIGHT; PIAGGIO AIRCRAFT; LIDAR

Domains: Optics / Photonic; Engineering Sciences [physics]

B. Augère, B. Besson, D. Fleury, D. Goular, C. Planchat, et al.. 1.5µm Lidar anemometer for True Air Speed, Angle Of Sideslip and Angle Of Attack measurements onboard Piaggio P180 aircraft. Measurement Science and Technology, 2016, 27 (5), ⟨10.1088/0957-0233/27/5/054002⟩. ⟨hal-01111306⟩