Identification and standardization of maneuvers based upon operational flight data

To find a way of loads analysis from operational flight data for advanced aircraft, maneuver identification and standardization jobs are conducted in this paper. For thousands of sorties from one aircraft, after studying the flight attitude when performing actions, the start and end time of the maneuvers can be determined. According to those time points, various types of maneuvers during the flight are extracted in the form of multi-parameters time histories. By analyzing the numerical range and curve shape of those parameters, a characteristic data library is established to model all types of maneuvers. Based on this library, a computer procedure using pattern-recognition theory is programmed to conduct automatic maneuver identification with high accuracy. In that way, operational loads are classified according to maneuver type. For a group of identified maneuvers of the same type, after the processes of time normalization, trace shifting, as well as averaging and smoothing, the idealization standard time history of each maneuver type is established. Finally, the typical load statuses are determined successfully based on standard maneuvers. The proposed method of maneuver identification and standardization is able to derive operational loads effectively, and might be applied to monitoring loads in Individual Aircraft Tracking Program (IATP).