Captive flight tests of GMV’s avionics for the Aviolancio program carried out by the Cnr in Texas

In the first week of November, GMV participated to the captive flight tests of the Aviolancio program conducted at Houston Air and Spaceport (Tx, USA). This program is led by the Italian National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Cnr) and aims to develop an air-launched micro-launcher to enhance access to space for small platforms. In this context GMV provides the complete avionics system for the small rocket, which includes hardware (HW) equipment, a telemetry system, onboard software (OBSW) and Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC).

The captive flight tests campaign, held during the first week of November in Houston, aimed to characterize the flight envelope and conditions for the final flight. The test focused on verifying safety and ground operations, testing the communications with the ground, and collecting flight data to optimizing the system, software, and GNC development.

All activities were led by the Italian Cnr, which was also responsible for data transmission from the sensors and on-ground data acquisition and monitoring. The tests were made possible thanks to the significant support of aircraft pilot Todd Ericson, from the USA company FTR Enterprises.

Aviolancio testing vehicle was manufactured by the Italian company Technology For Propulsion (T4i, Padua) and equipped with sensors. GMV integrated a preliminary version of the avionics, which included an OnBoard Computer (OBC), an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and, the proprietary GNSS software receiver Sextans GMV^®.

The Aviolancio vehicle, mounted on a pylon of a carrier aircraft, underwent two taxi tests followed, by two flights to evaluate the take-off, flight conditions, and maneuverability of the aircraft with the integrated vehicle. The primary goal was to replicate the trajectory and characterize the vehicle and conditions up to release point for the final flight. 

Additionally, safety aspects, ground operations and verification of the data acquisition system during flight were consolidated. 

The captive flight tests were successfully executed, and flight data were collected throughout the complete mission.

GMV will analyze the data gathered during the avionics during these tests to conduct a post-flight analysis. This data will drive the optimization of the navigation algorithms, which will consider hybridization solutions (IMU plus GNSS) and enhance the robustness of the control laws developed for the Aviolancio program.