Air test and training platform stabilized aircraft: "air magician" In the real world, online games or film and television works, you may have seen fighter planes, bombers and transport planes and know something about them. But there is a kind of plane that you probably haven't heard of. It is "kept in the boudoir" and rarely appears. Its shape is similar to that of other aircraft. Even if you encounter it, you may turn a blind eye to it. It is to stabilize the aircraft. Let's see its "true face of Lushan Mountain" today. Air test and training platform Stabilized aircraft: "air magician" Air flight simulator came into being Variable stability aircraft has the reputation of "air magician" in the aviation industry. Its "magic" is that it can "take one as ten", imitating the flight characteristics of a variety of aircraft. Why imitate the flight characteristics of other aircraft? The reason is not complicated. It is mainly to provide evaluation environment and reference for "building" a new generation of fighters or a new generation of test pilots and pilots. The "job" of "building" a new generation of fighters or a new generation of test pilots and pilots is not only capable of stabilizing aircraft. Before the emergence of the variable stability aircraft, the ground flight simulator was engaged in this work and "performed well". The earliest ground flight simulator was made by American link. Its improved model trained a large number of pilots for the United States in World War II. After World War II, with the rapid development of electronic technology and computer technology, the performance of ground flight simulator has also increased. At the same time, this has also led to a new demand - to build and use air flight simulators. In the long-term use of the ground flight simulator, it is found that when testing and training are carried out in the absence of the real air environment, sometimes the results are greatly deviated from the actual flight conditions, and some are even fatal. During the ground flight simulation training, the trainees could not get the real psychological change experience during air flight, and their psychological quality could not be effectively exercised. Since some problems need to be solved in the air, build an experimental aircraft. However, the types of test pilots and pilots to be trained are different. The situation of new aircraft to be tested and evaluated is very different. It is impossible to build a new experimental aircraft in one mission. Therefore, the variable stability aircraft that can use the same aircraft to meet the similar needs of different new aircraft came into being. The core hardware platform of variable stability aircraft The emergence and application of fly by wire control system is a major prerequisite for the realization of variable stability of variable stability aircraft. In the past, aircraft used mechanical control transmission system, and the "every move" of rudder control often depended on the pilot's pedal and hand. The appearance of fly by wire control system is like a "secretary" for pilots - variable stability flight control computer. When the pilot operates the aircraft, he only needs to give the purpose to be achieved as an "order" to the "secretary", and the "secretary" will complete the allocation of specific tasks by himself and send the command to the actuator controlling each rudder surface. This capability of variable stability flight control computer makes it possible to load other aircraft control model data and realize air flight simulation. If having the fly by wire control system only meets the conditions of the variable stability platform, the main "ability" of the variable stability aircraft is to simulate the flight quality of a specific aircraft, and its core hardware platform is that the variable stability aircraft has a variable stability system cabin. There is a set of variable stability system in the variable stability system cabin, which is mainly composed of variable stability flight control computer, multi-functional display simulating cockpit instruments, joystick with variable characteristics, configuration controller that sends instructions to the flight control computer, aircraft characteristic data, etc. In actual flight operation, the driver invokes the data model of the simulated object machine from the variable stability flight control computer, and displays the cockpit instrument pattern of the aircraft on the screen. The cockpit maneuvering and flying state will also reflect the characteristics of the aircraft. Selecting the data models of different simulation object aircraft, the variable stability aircraft will show the flight characteristics of different simulation object aircraft. For the same object aircraft, the flight quality will show different changes by adjusting relevant parameters. In this way, the variable stability aircraft has the ability to simulate the flight characteristics and flight quality of other aircraft as an air test and training platform. There is a risk for unstable aircraft to perform "magic" Since it only simulates the flight quality of other aircraft, is the stabilized aircraft equivalent to "flying in the air with a ground flight simulator"? It's not that simple. One of the main purposes of the "magic" of variable stability aircraft is to seek the breakthrough and innovation of aviation flight technology in the real flight environment. This breakthrough and innovation includes not only the air flight simulation verification of high-performance new aircraft, but also the research on advanced flight control technology, but also the training of test pilots. The common feature of these jobs is that they are more or less "taking the road that predecessors have not taken", and filling in the blank means taking great risks. In this case, if the aircraft operation authority is handed over to the variable stability system cabin, each "trial and error" or "filling the gap" may become the beginning of the accident. Therefore, the variable stability aircraft has to adopt a whole set of schemes to ensure safety. First, a relatively unified configuration is adopted - in addition to the variable stability system cabin, there is also a normal operation system cabin, which is controlled by a safe pilot. Once an accident occurs when the pilot of the variable stability system cabin or the test pilot controls the aircraft, the safety pilot will immediately intervene with full authority to ensure the safety of the variable stability aircraft and the personnel on board. Second, try to use mature models to refit variable stability aircraft. For example, the Learjet stabilized aircraft comes from the Lille jet, which was originally designed from the Swiss P-16 attack aircraft. Strong engine power, good safety and fast flight speed are important reasons for Lille jet's election. The same reason is why Russia refitted the Tu-154 aircraft into a variable stability aircraft. Although the Tu-154 airliner has been criticized for the crash, objectively speaking, it is the only mainstream airliner that has not had a major accident due to design problems. Third, promote the upgrading of variable stability aircraft. Due to the exploration of more advanced flight control technology, the simulation verification of more avant-garde new aircraft and the training of senior test pilots, the development of variable stability aircraft can not be "once and for all", but also needs to be updated. In the late 1940s, after the United States developed the world's first variable stability aircraft F-4U, Russia, Britain, France and other countries also successfully developed variable stability aircraft. Today, the aviation developed countries in the world have generally realized the upgrading of variable stability aircraft, competed to develop variable stability aircraft that can simulate almost all types of aircraft, and formed a complete set of air flight simulation experiment system. This effort not only improves and expands the platform function, simulation performance, simulation accuracy, simulation range and application fields of the variable stability aircraft, but also enables the "air magician" to carry out various tests more safely, smoothly and efficiently. "Air magician" has broad development prospects In a sense, variable stability aircraft is born for the development of new aircraft and the continuous search for breakthroughs in aviation flight technology. The "pre judgment" of the design parameters on the drawings and the simulation of the flight characteristics of the new aircraft make it almost indispensable in the development of most new fighters. The research and development of modern advanced fighters pay more and more attention to the application of high and new technology, especially cross generation fighters. They often adopt a large number of pioneering ideas and technologies. If these technologies are to be integrated into new fighters, they must reduce the possible risks. With the help of variable stability aircraft, it becomes a shortcut. Moreover, in order to try our best to shorten the time from R & D to train loading and use of new fighters and occupy the first mover advantage to the greatest extent, we also need to "lend a helping hand" to stabilize the aircraft. With the growing demand for UAVs in the global aviation industry, the application of variable stability aircraft is gradually expanding to the field of UAVs, which will make the status and role of variable stability aircraft more important. The demand will be strong in the future, and its current development trend also shows broad application prospects. There are more aircraft models that can be simulated, the flight characteristics of the target aircraft are more obvious, the simulation results are obvious, and the trust of various countries in the variable stability aircraft is improved... Many countries even stipulate that the variable stability aircraft must "feel the pulse" for the new aircraft before it is put into service; Before the first flight of the newly developed fighter, the pilot must be trained to stabilize the aircraft to ensure flight safety. Moreover, other uses of variable stability aircraft also make it "promising". For example, it can be used to explain or teach the design of flight control system, demonstrate the impact of different system parameters on aircraft stability and mobility, and carry out research on man-machine efficiency and integrated electronic system. The reason for the broad development prospect of variable stability aircraft also comes from its impressive efficiency cost ratio. Take the training of test pilots as an example. On the variable stability aircraft, they can experience a variety of special situations in a short time. These special situations may be encountered only after taking off and landing many times in the actual flight. Even according to the viewpoint of "winning at low cost under the same conditions and efficiency", the variable stability aircraft with more skills obviously has its reason to continue to be "popular". (outlook new era)