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Accurate Automation Corporation designed and tested the LoFLYTE® testbed aircraft. The LoFLYTE program has demonstrated several advanced technologies. All three aircraft are flown by remote control. The present LoFLYTEs fly slower than the speed of sound, but have the same "waverider" shape designed for Mach Five operation. The term "waverider" refers to the fact that aircraft of this shape ride on the shock waves that they create when they fly above the speed of sound. Other supersonic and hypersonic aircraft suffer reduced performance because they fight against the shock waves rather than riding them. The waverider shape improves fuel consumption by decreasing air resistance at speeds greater than Mach One.
Click here for a movie and some more images of LoFLYTE |
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LoFLYTE taking off |
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LoFLYTE Projects:
Multi-Ship:
Accurate Automation Corporation has developed an innovative control subsystem for flight path management of multiple aircraft. This technology is based on a learning algorithm known as the Adaptive Critic, which creates an easy-to-use subsystem for assisting aircraft and mission planning systems. Our controller helps to automate several flight processes including formation flying and coordinated trajectories. The operator(s) can simply specify the final formation and destination and the automatic guidance system will specify flight paths for each aircraft. Waypoints can be designated along the flight path to force a formation to be in a specified place at a scheduled time for multi-stage missions. A robust inner-loop control system on board each aircraft generates the controls that execute the commanded maneuvers. Constraints govern the controller so that the aircraft are never given commands to perform potentially dangerous manuvers. |
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Waverider:
The LoFLYTE aircraft has been flying since 1996; the next flight tests are scheduled for summer 2003. Flights have the goal of characterizing LoFLYTE's aerodynamics, evaluating possible modifications and enhancements to the aircraft, evaluating LoFLYTE's neural adaptive flight control system, and verifying the controller's genericity. Flight tests are designed to evaluate the performance of the controller in extreme environments, in the face of aircraft modifications, for system failures and/or aircraft damage, and under fully autonomous control. |
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Multi-Camera Simulation of LoFLYTE |
Actual LoFLYTE footage |
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