Technical Paper
Development of a Test Rig for the Assessment of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in Icing
2023-06-15
2023-01-1416
As the everyday use of flying small to medium size Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) continues to evolve, so does the need to fly them in icing environments. To investigate an RPAS’ ability to fly in these conditions, an outdoor test rig has been developed at the National Research Council Canada (NRC) in which a range of RPAS have been tested in icing environments. This rig has an available test area of 3.05 m × 3.05 m, and is 5.1 m high. An array of spray nozzles installed at the top of the test rig provides a cloud that, when operated at sub-zero temperatures, enables simulation of in-flight icing conditions. The spray cloud is calibrated to provide water concentration and drop size distributions consistent with Appendix C, freezing drizzle and freezing rain conditions.