Flight Test Planning for the Research Aircraft for eVTOL Enabling techNologies (RAVEN)

In the past several years, a number of large-scale prototype electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft have been flight tested by aircraft manufacturers to achieve their commercial product development goals for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) market. Owing to intellectual property and propriety information concerns, however, relatively few large-scale eVTOL aircraft have been flight tested for research purposes to produce data that can be published to benefit the broader aeronautics community. The corresponding lack of available flight test data makes it difficult for researchers to validate and improve computational tools that are needed for advancing the state of the art in eVTOL aircraft design.The proposed Phase I effort will develop flight test plans and associated models and methods for the Research Aircraft for eVTOL Enabling techNologies (RAVEN). RAVEN is an eVTOL aircraft with a gross weight in excess of 1000 lbs that is being developed to conduct flight research related to acoustics, flight dynamics and control, interactional aerodynamics, and autonomy for AAM aircraft. The work in Phase I will include measurement methodology development; flight test site evaluation and selection; coordination with airworthiness authorities; refinement of the flight test concept of operations (CONOPS) including the piloting and ground control approach; development of flight test missions and test cards; and refinement of flight performance and controls models for the research missions. Work in Phase II will include final systems integration, ground testing, and flight testing. Flight test data from this program will be made available to NASA and published to enable other researchers to advance the state of the art in eVTOL computational tools. nbsp;