Flying a military combat aircraft is difficult enough, but piloting a malfunctioning or battle-damaged jet would be a challenge to any Top Gun. A Virginia Tech research program is working to save pilots and planes by creating the programming for on-board flight computers to assess problems and make adjustments that will give pilots a better chance of landing a damaged plane.

Far in the back of Hancock Hall, the cockpit of a Navy A-6E Intruder sits disembodied from its airplane, now part of a computer controlled flight simulator. The computer adjusts the controls so the simulator is effectively a fighter--F-14, F-15, or F-18--or another attack plane such as an A-10. Top speeds, maneuverability, and response are all affected by the airframe selected for the flight. This simulator is not for training pilots; its for simulating adverse flying conditions. Graduate students program the computer to optimize the handling and control.

Drew Robbins (aeronautical engineering M.S. '99) flies the simulator from the A6-E Intruder cockpit. The windshield view appears as a naval station or aircraft carrier.

Once the canopy is closed, the view in the cockpit looks like a typical night in flight--stars in the sky, lights lining a runway at Oceana Naval Air Station, or the approach to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz. "Thats how it looks coming into a carrier," says associate professor Wayne Durham (aeronautical engineering Ph.D. 89), veteran of 147 combat missions over Vietnam, all originating from a carrier. Durham, who tests the programs, has the double distinction of being an instructor and a certified experimental test pilot--his occupation in the U.S. Navy before coming to Tech to obtain his Ph.D.

On the screen in front of the cockpits windshield, the scene "can still give a pilot sweaty palms," Durham says. As the Nimitz nears, an orange light used by pilots to line up their vector of descent is clear. A series of strobe lights runs down the landing area, and the entire flight deck is outlined. The island of the carrier is visible, as is the wake of the ship, all thanks to the computer.

Durham flies the simulator on its test missions, testing the code written by the graduate students to be sold to the Navy or NASA, two of the major customers for the research. That programming lets a planes computer assess problems caused from flight malfunctions or combat damage, determines how it affects the control of the jet, and adjusts accordingly.

Until recently wing flaps and rudders were controlled mechanically or with a mechanical back-up-pulleys and wires the pilot moved with the control stick. Now the pilot no longer has a direct mechanical connection. A computer moves components in response to the pilots commands. If the plane is damaged, the computer will reconfigure the flight dynamics for optimal control. Thats where the Tech research is being used by the Naval Air Warfare Center in Patuxent River, Md.

Graduate student Kevin Scalera (aerospace engineering M.S. 99) has developed skills as a pilot in the simulator. He says a true test of the programming comes when aircraft components are suddenly changed. "We have someone up in the simulator just flying around, then well throw in a control failure." Scalera says the crew controlling the computer will ask if pilots noticed when the failure occurred. Ideally, they wont because the computer will react immediately, reconfiguring the controls for optimal flying. "If a real pilot had a control failure, there would be a big light warning him of that event," Scalera says.

The flight simulator gives the students a chance to solve real-world problems in a hands-on approach. Such work will be advantageous in the job-hunt process, says Roger Beck (aerospace engineering 98, M.S.), who prefers the work to theoretical research.

The flight simulator displays a schematic of an airplane in flight, and highlights the area where a failure occurs as it changes the flight parameters to mimic the malfunction.

Undergraduates do not pilot the simulator as often as graduates, but do observe simulator demonstrations of dynamics, stability, and control. The physical laws governing the responses of aircraft are demonstrated on the simulator: a far cry from waving plastic models of aircraft around in the classroom, says Durham. Seniors studying flight design stability and control systems on desk-top simulations then implement and test their designs on the simulator.

Durham says he encourages rising seniors to work in the simulator lab during the summers, the most intense research time. "I use it as a recruiting tool for the graduate program," he says.

Beck enjoyed working with the simulator as an undergraduate. He jumped at the chance to earn a masters under Durham. As an undergraduate, he worked on installing the software that would allow the simulator to fly.

"This is a unique program," Beck says. "Its important work, and its great hands-on experience, integrating all the code with the hardware, working on the interfaces and making the sim fly."

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