Assessment of the Tracking Accuracy for the air Vehicle Tracking System Supporting the CIRA Optionally Piloted Aircraft

The Italian Aerospace Research Center developed an integrated platform, named Flight Laboratory for Aeronautical REsearch (FLARE), made up of a commercial ultra-light aircraft, modified to be remotely controlled, and a ground control station providing remote command and control functions. The integrated platform is equipped with a line-of-sight datalink whose ground segment integrates a directional antenna that aims at the aircraft during the whole mission by means of the in-house designed Vehicle Tracking System (VTS). The scope of this paper is the description of the analysis of the error sources influencing the accuracy of the VTS tracking capability. The uncertainty quantification is based on a mathematical model and measurements carried out during some flight tests then, it is compared with the expected accuracy.