The Development of a Tool for the Air Data System Calibration Flight Tests Campaign Using Image Processing

The first Flight Test Campaign (FTC) carried out for an experimental aircraft is the calibration of its Air Data System (ADS). In this case, the altitude and airspeed measurements of the aircraft are provided by both anemometric along with the Flight Tests Instrumentation (FTI) systems that are corrupted by installation errors. Therefore, a tool was developed using techniques such as image processing in order to minimize these errors. A tool is described for detecting the position of the aircraft during a FTC through a video of the high-speed camera. The tool detects the aircraft and reference points, calculates altitude and airspeed of the aircraft and determines validity of test point in FTC. The preliminary tests of this tool showed satisfactory results compared to the current method. This paper will discuss such scenario, its preliminary development and the results through performed flights with EMBRAER Jet XAT-26 aircraft and HELIBRAS HB-350L-1 helicopter.