Universal Automated Flight Simulator Fidelity Test System

Modern flight simulators are capable of reaching an extraordinarily high level of fidelity in the area of performance and flying qualities. In order to support the significant amount of development and testing to reach these performance levels a largenumber of well defined, precision flying tasks must be performed. This flight testing can be done manually or, more often in recent years, by an Automatic Fidelity Test (AFT) tool. These tools are usually developed along with the training device, anduniquely tailored to support the specific device development. The result is considerable tool development and tuning necessary to support the aero model development. Additionally, simulator manufacturers have different approaches to the testingrequirements, resulting in inconsistent operation, function, and usage. This contributes to significant wasted time in training device development and reduced confidence in the validation process.The development of a Universal Automated Flight Simulator Fidelity Test System, providing an easy to use interface, proven test drivers, and a versatile plotting package would result in significant time savings during the course of device development.Device validation would also benefit greatly from the confidence of a proven tool, providing automatic and manual testing capabilities, and a powerful data analysis package. The development of a Universal Automated Flight Simulator Fidelity Test System provides for a powerful development and validation tool. The significant increase in the ease of use, along with the wide versatility of the system should provide a majorincentive to all simulator manufacturers, including those with current in-house Autofidelity implementations.