Flight test protocol optimization using genetic algorithms

Abstract The growing development of numerical simulation in aviation industry raises the issue of the quality of the models implemented. Flight test protocols are designed and flown to adjust the coefficients of the predicted aerodynamic model to the real aircraft in order to improve the flight dynamics model accuracy. The aircraft model becomes of major importance in every new aircraft program. Consequently, the constraint on its reliability increases. This paper describes a new optimization methodology using Genetic Algorithms (GA) for the design of optimal flight test protocols and provides a comparison with alternative method such as Dynamic Programming (DP).