Stability and Control Flight Testing of the Dassault Falcon 10/100 by Andres Mauricio Alarcon Vega A thesis submitted to the College of Engineering and Science of Florida Institute of Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Flight Test Engineering Melbourne, Florida May 2021 We the undersigned committee hereby approve the attached thesis, “Stability and Control Flight Testing of the Dassault Falcon 10/100” by Andres Mauricio Alarcon Vega _________________________________________________ Brian A. Kish, Ph.D. Associate Professor Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences Major Advisor _________________________________________________ Markus Wilde, Dr.-Ing. Associate Professor Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences Committee Member _________________________________________________ Isaac Silver, Ph.D. Test Pilot Energy Management Aerospace LLC Committee Member _________________________________________________ David Fleming, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Department Head Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences Abstract Title: Stability and Control Flight Testing of the Dassault Falcon 10/100 Author: Andres Mauricio Alarcon Vega Advisor: Brian A. Kish, Ph.D. The Falcon 10/100 is a transport category aircraft developed by Dassault Aviation in 1971. Production of the aircraft ceased in 1989, but it remains available on the secondhand market. Certification for these types of aircraft follow FAR Part 25 of the code of federal regulations. Aircraft stability and control flying qualities are dependent on the mission profile and intended use case of the aircraft. External factors, such as turbulence, are relevant for transport category aircraft because poor stability could affect the flying characteristics and result in an unpleasant ride. On the other hand, in a trimmed condition, an aircraft with strong positive stability has a greater resistance to disturbances. Additional requirements for military planes are available in military specification MIL-F-8785C. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the stability and control characteristics of the Dassault Falcon 10/100. The flight test focused on the evaluation of the following: Phugoid mode for dynamic longitudinal stability, static lateral-directional stability, and the Spiral and Dutch roll modes for dynamic lateral-directional stability. Results from the flight test indicate that the aircraft has acceptable stability characteristics in accordance with federal regulations and military specifications. Programs that offer jet flight testing are available through institutions like the Naval or the Air Force Test Pilot School. Few universities in the United States offer elective courses for students interested in this field of engineering. A potential benefit of offering jet aircraft flight testing, as a restricted elective, is to provide students from all nationalities with an affordable alternative to military programs. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ iii List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1 Theoretical Background ........................................................................................ 1 Dynamic Longitudinal Stability ........................................................................................ 1 Long Period or Phugoid mode ...................................................................................... 1 Static Lateral-Directional Stability .................................................................................... 3 Dynamic Lateral-Directional Stability .............................................................................. 5 Spiral Mode ................................................................................................................... 6 Dutch Roll Mode ........................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2 Aircraft Characteristics and Flight Test Planning ................................................. 9 Test Aircraft ...................................................................................................................... 9 Instrumentation and Data Collection ............................................................................... 10 Data Acquisition System ................................................................................................. 11 Limitations and Specifications ........................................................................................ 12 Test Location and Meteorological Conditions ................................................................ 13 Testing Methods .............................................................................................................. 14 Dynamic Longitudinal Stability: Long period or Phugoid mode ................................ 14 Static Directional Stability .......................................................................................... 14 Static Lateral Stability ................................................................................................. 14 Dynamic Lateral-Directional Stability: Spiral Mode .................................................. 15 iv Dynamic Lateral-Directional Stability: Dutch Roll Mode .......................................... 15 Chapter 3 Flight Test Results .............................................................................................. 16 Dynamic Longitudinal Stability ...................................................................................... 16 Long Period or Phugoid mode .................................................................................... 16 Static Directional Stability .............................................................................................. 21 Static Lateral Stability ..................................................................................................... 24 Dynamic Lateral-Directional Stability: Spiral Mode ...................................................... 26 Dynamic Lateral-Directional Stability: Dutch Roll Mode .............................................. 27 Chapter 4 Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................... 34 Long Period or Phugoid mode .................................................................................... 34 Static Directional Stability .............................................................................................. 34 Static Lateral Stability ..................................................................................................... 34 Dynamic Lateral-Directional Stability ............................................................................ 35 Spiral Mode ................................................................................................................. 35 Dutch Roll Mode ......................................................................................................... 35 Academic Application ..................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 5 References ........................................................................................................... 37 Appendix ............................................................................................................................. 39 Raw Test Data ............................................................................................................. 39 Data Reduction ............................................................................................................ 52 Weight and Balance .................................................................................................... 53 v List of Figures Figure 1. Longitudinal Dynamic Stability [2] ....................................................................... 2 Figure 2. Airplane in flight is like a spring-mass-damper system [4] ................................... 2 Figure 3. Sideslip and angle of Yaw [4] ................................................................................ 3 Figure 4. Rolling moment generated by sideslip and wing sweep [4] ................................... 5 Figure 5. Classical lateral-directional modes of motion [4] .................................................. 6 Figure 6. Dassault Falcon 10/100 .......................................................................................... 9 Figure 7. Instrumentation panel layout for Falcon 10/100 .................................................. 10 Figure 8. GoPro HERO8 Camera ........................................................................................ 11 Figure 9. Stratus 3 ADS-B Receiver [8] .............................................................................. 11 Figure 10. Test area ............................................................................................................. 13 Figure 11. Long period speed variation ............................................................................... 16 Figure 12. Long