Description: In Phase I, a comprehensive tool suite for the quantitative assessment of UAM aircraft ride qualities with respect to passenger comfort. As a result of this effort the validation of the tool suite was attempted however due to the lack of publicly available validation datasets for the dynamic handling qualities of UAM aircraft this effort proved difficult. The proposed Phase II work will attempt to comprehensively address this gap in knowledge through the construction of a Scaled Modular Aerial Research Testbed. The main design of the SMART vehicle will be to allow for installation of a modular vertical lift system with modules representing common UAM aircraft configurations. The vehicle will be outfitted with provisions for scaling of the aerodynamic and mass properties intended to allow for the matching of the sub-scale vehicle’s dynamics to larger full-scale dynamics. A series of ground tests will be conducted to document the ‘as-built’ configuring, measurements will include key geometric and structural properties as well as mass properties. The SMART vehicle will be flown indoors through a series of flights including a tethered ‘jerk’ flight test intended to represent an external impulse gust disturbance. The use of the SIDPAC tool suite will be used to design flight test cards as well as post-processing flight data to validate the 6DoF dynamics tool suite produced from the Phase I efforts. The as-built vehicle characteristics and flight test data of three different UAM configurations will be provided to NASA at the end of the effort enabling validation of UAM and rotorcraft dynamics tool suites.

Benefits: Potential NASA commercial applications for the validated PANTHER tool suite include the direct engineering services in the design and feasibility studies of UAM configurations and the assessment of UAM operations in urban wind environments. Additionally, the SMART vehicle NASA access to a dynamically scaled reconfigurable vehicle enabling the flight testing and maturation of emerging technologies further enabling UAM operations.

Potential Non-NASA commercial applications include engineering design and analysis services utilizing the validated the PANTHER tool suite as well as the development and maturation of ESAero’s PHM and DEP technologies on-board the SMART vehicle. Applicable markets include commercial UAM OEMs as well as commercial and DoD entities interested in VTOL Group 1 through Group 3 UAVs applications.