| Abstract | The Gas Turbine Laboratory of NRC’s Aerospace Research Centre has an extensive experience in impact testing on aircraft structures, windshields as well as engines (bird ingestion). Over the years, a number of pneumatic guns with various sizes have been developed to perform such tests depending on the specifications and test requirements.
Over the last three years and in collaboration with Transport Canada and Defence Research and Development Canada, the National Research Council Canada has developed a 43 cm (17 in) bore cannon and completed two series of drone impact tests. The first series of tests was on aluminum plates [1] whereas, the second was on windshield and wing leading edge of a typical AWM 525 (Part 25) aircraft [2].
This objective of this project is to perform drone impacts on various components of a typical AWM523 (Part 23) category airplane. Impact tests were performed at speeds simulating approach and cruising phases.
AWM 523 aircrafts can be classified as normal, utility, acrobatic and commuter categories. The latter category is a multi-engine airplane with 19 seats or less (excluding pilots’) and a maximum take-off weight of 8,618 kg (19,000 lbs). The normal, utility and acrobatic aircrafts feature a seating configuration of 9 or less (excluding pilot seats) and a maximum take-off weight of 5,700 kg (12,566 lbs). The normal category is intended for non-acrobatic operations whereas, the utility category may be used for limited acrobatic operations. More details can be found in [3] and [4]. It is worth noting that none of these aircraft categories is required to be certified for structural and/or windshield bird strike except the commuter, which must pass a windshield bird impact test (907 g, 2 lbs) at maximum approach flap speed.
In this study, a four-seat, high wing, dual-category aircraft (normal and utility) was used to perform drone impact strike tests on the vertical and horizontal stabilizers (VS and HS), strut, flap and wing leading edge. Cessna 172 Skyhawk was selected for such tests as it represents the most popular aircraft in its category with 44,000 (built) worldwide and 2,536 registered in Canada. |
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