Identification from Flight Data of the Aerodynamics of an Experimental Re-Entry Vehicle

Post flight data analyses are essential activities in aerospace projects. In particular, there is a specific interest in obtaining vehicle aerodynamic characteristics from flight data, especially for re-entry vehicle, in order to better understand theoretical predictions, to validate wind- tunnel test results and to get more accurate and reliable mathematical models for the purpose of simulation, stability analysis, and control system design and evaluation. Indeed, due to atmospheric re-entry specificity in terms of environment and phenomena, ground based experiments are not fully exhaustive and in-flight experimentation is mandatory. Moreover pre-flight models are usually characterised by wide uncertainty ranges, which should be reduced. These objectives can be reached by performing vehicle’s model identification from flight data.