Development of new and innovative applications for high precision differential global positioning systems (DGPS) has exploded in the last two years. Real-time three-dimensional accuracy’s of under three centimeters and processed position update rates in excess of four hertz, along with position update latencies of under eighty milliseconds are now commercially available. Immediate position info...

Some program participants believe that neither the content of the flight test program (what was done) nor its approach (how it was done) was greatly affected by its acquisition strategy. These participants assert that test program management would have been similar under a traditional acquisition approach. Indeed, evidence suggests that the dominant influence on the pace and structure of the te...

Adaptive flight control is a potentially promising technology that can improve aircraft stability and maneuverability. In recent years, adaptive control has been receiving a significant amount of attention. In aerospace applications, adaptive control has been demonstrated in many flight vehicles. For example, NASA has conducted a flight test of a neural net intelligent flight control system on ...

The use of flight simulation tools to reduce the risk and required amount of flight testing for complex aerospace systems is a well recognized benefit of these tools. However, some special challenges arise when one attempts to extrapolate these benefits to very low-cost Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight testing. These types of vehicles are characterized by a lack of payload capacity (and ...