General Atomics [GA] Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) completed the fuselage structural integrity testing of the company’s Certifiable Predator B (CPB) remotely piloted aircraft (RPA, also called a UAV or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) as a major step in validating airworthiness, the company said May 4.
The testing involved a two-day Test Readiness Review (TRR) followed by rigorous testing in February at GA’s R&D facility in California. General Atomics highlighted that it used a proof testing method that allowed the company to evaluate and confirm the integrity of the Predator B’s fuselage quickly, which enables assessments of increasing mechanical stresses at levels higher than the airframe will incur in flight.
The data resulting from the testing supports computational modeling, analyses, and verification to confirm compliance with airworthiness requirements.
GA said proof tests were successfully completed across multiple areas of the fuselage. This testing focus included the determination of the effects of airframe bending, aft section torsion, maximum power plant torque, multiple stress tests on the main and nose landing gear mounts, and the maximum hoist load. Data from these stress tests are next leveraged for model correlation to maximize airborne safety.
Following the proof testing, aircraft flight testing is set to begin later in 2016.
GA separately conducted structural integrity testing of the CPB’s wings and tail design in December 2015 under a separate effort.
“Completion of this testing signifies that the design of the new fuselage will be able to meet the strict requirements for type-certification and routine operations in national airspace,” Linden Blue, CEO of GA-ASI, said in a statement.
“This fuselage is designed to meet lightning-strike, damage-tolerance, and turbulence-induced stress requirements specified by the NATO UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Airworthiness Standard. It also will accommodate an integrated Detect & Avoid System, including an anti-collision radar system,” Blue added.
The entire CPB testing process is part of a larger Independent Research and Development (IRAD) effort to design, develop, and produce the CPB as a variant of the Predator B RPA that is compliant with NATO’s UAV System Airworthiness Requirements, defined in STANAG 4671. Under these requirements the UAV system from an airworthiness perspective should have streamlined approval to fly in the airspace of other NATO countries if they have also ratified that STANAG.
GA also said the CPB completed an internal Phase 1 Critical Design Review (CDR) in June 2015 along with reviews from two prospective European customers.