Wright Aircraft Flight Simulation and Handling Qualities

The Liverpool Wright project has been able to recreate the experience of flying the Wright brothers’ aircraft within the University of Liverpool’s state-of-the-art flight simulation laboratory. Handling qualities is the study of the behaviour of the pilot-vehicle system in the performance of specific tasks. The project used this approach to provide a framework within which the aircraft were assessed and analysed. A series of simulation trials were conducted using test pilots where manoeuvres such as the rollstep were designed to investigate the flight characteristics. The simulation models were developed using the data acquired from the wind tunnel experiments. These high fidelity simulation models are able to reproduce the dynamic motions that the real aircraft would experience.