{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/101073"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/101073","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Design, development and evaluation of a distributed electric propulsion testbed aircraft","abstract":"The work presented in this thesis was performed in support of a NASA STTR Phase I program aimed to improve the overall system technology readiness level of a distributed electric propulsion (DEP) based control system. The primary objectives of this work were to experimentally characterize the propulsion-airframe interactions inherent to DEP vehicles to aid in modeling and to explore and validate the use of DEP to perform vehicle-level flight control. A Cirrus SR22-T was chosen as a suitable airframe for DEP modifications and a 21% radio-controlled model was constructed and instrumented with a full data acquisition and flight control system to command and capture the aircraft’s state during flight. The baseline configuration of the Cirrus model was successfully flight tested to perform system identification multi-sine maneuvers, which were used in the creation and refinement of a high-fidelity flight dynamics model. Plans for a dynamically-scaled variant of this configuration were developed with weight and inertial scaling targets within 5% of the ideal values. For the DEP modifications, an extensive system engineering study was performed to balance weight, structure, power, electronics, aerodynamics and control requirements. A final design featuring a total of eight electric ducted fans located in two groups of four on the upper trailing edge of the left and right wing was selected. Wind tunnel testing of the selected electric ducted fans was conducted to validate thrust and temperature performance. A new set of wings were designed and constructed to mount the propulsors and integrate with the existing Cirrus model requiring minimal changes to the baseline design. A test stand mimicking the DEP wing was developed to safely test the entire propulsion system on the ground and provide preliminary analysis of implemented control maneuvers. Successful flight testing of the DEP vehicle is expected to validate the overall design and implementation of DEP-based control. Last, a study was performed to investigate the feasibility of scaling up the sub-scale DEP research vehicle to a limited range, full-size equivalent Cirrus SR22-T with DEP modifications using current hardware.","abstract_html":"The work presented in this thesis was performed in support of a NASA STTR Phase I program aimed to improve the overall system technology readiness level of a distributed electric propulsion (DEP) based control system. The primary objectives of this work were to experimentally characterize the propulsion-airframe interactions inherent to DEP vehicles to aid in modeling and to explore and validate the use of DEP to perform vehicle-level flight control. A Cirrus SR22-T was chosen as a suitable airframe for DEP modifications and a 21% radio-controlled model was constructed and instrumented with a full data acquisition and flight control system to command and capture the aircraft’s state during flight. The baseline configuration of the Cirrus model was successfully flight tested to perform system identification multi-sine maneuvers, which were used in the creation and refinement of a high-fidelity flight dynamics model. Plans for a dynamically-scaled variant of this configuration were developed with weight and inertial scaling targets within 5% of the ideal values. For the DEP modifications, an extensive system engineering study was performed to balance weight, structure, power, electronics, aerodynamics and control requirements. A final design featuring a total of eight electric ducted fans located in two groups of four on the upper trailing edge of the left and right wing was selected. Wind tunnel testing of the selected electric ducted fans was conducted to validate thrust and temperature performance. A new set of wings were designed and constructed to mount the propulsors and integrate with the existing Cirrus model requiring minimal changes to the baseline design. A test stand mimicking the DEP wing was developed to safely test the entire propulsion system on the ground and provide preliminary analysis of implemented control maneuvers. Successful flight testing of the DEP vehicle is expected to validate the overall design and implementation of DEP-based control. Last, a study was performed to investigate the feasibility of scaling up the sub-scale DEP research vehicle to a limited range, full-size equivalent Cirrus SR22-T with DEP modifications using current hardware.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Pieper, Kyle Chapman"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Aerospace Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ansell, Phillip J."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-09-04T20:31:57Z","date_published":"2018-09-04T20:31:57Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:38Z","subjects":["distributed electric propulsion","dynamic scaling","propulsive control","flight testing","conceptual design","testbed aircraft","Cirrus SR22-T","boundary layer ingestion"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2018 Kyle Chapman Pieper. All rights reserved."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101073","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ansell, Phillip J."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Pieper, Kyle Chapman"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2018-09-04T20:31:57Z","2018-04-25","2018-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Aerospace Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["distributed electric propulsion","dynamic scaling","propulsive control","flight testing","conceptual design","testbed aircraft","Cirrus SR22-T","boundary layer ingestion"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2018 Kyle Chapman Pieper. All rights reserved."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101073"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The work presented in this thesis was performed in support of a NASA STTR Phase I program aimed to improve the overall system technology readiness level of a distributed electric propulsion (DEP) based control system. The primary objectives of this work were to experimentally characterize the propulsion-airframe interactions inherent to DEP vehicles to aid in modeling and to explore and validate the use of DEP to perform vehicle-level flight control. A Cirrus SR22-T was chosen as a suitable airframe for DEP modifications and a 21% radio-controlled model was constructed and instrumented with a full data acquisition and flight control system to command and capture the aircraft’s state during flight. The baseline configuration of the Cirrus model was successfully flight tested to perform system identification multi-sine maneuvers, which were used in the creation and refinement of a high-fidelity flight dynamics model. Plans for a dynamically-scaled variant of this configuration were developed with weight and inertial scaling targets within 5% of the ideal values. For the DEP modifications, an extensive system engineering study was performed to balance weight, structure, power, electronics, aerodynamics and control requirements. A final design featuring a total of eight electric ducted fans located in two groups of four on the upper trailing edge of the left and right wing was selected. Wind tunnel testing of the selected electric ducted fans was conducted to validate thrust and temperature performance. A new set of wings were designed and constructed to mount the propulsors and integrate with the existing Cirrus model requiring minimal changes to the baseline design. A test stand mimicking the DEP wing was developed to safely test the entire propulsion system on the ground and provide preliminary analysis of implemented control maneuvers. Successful flight testing of the DEP vehicle is expected to validate the overall design and implementation of DEP-based control. Last, a study was performed to investigate the feasibility of scaling up the sub-scale DEP research vehicle to a limited range, full-size equivalent Cirrus SR22-T with DEP modifications using current hardware.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2018-08-31 without embargo terms","The student, Kyle Pieper, accepted the attached license on 2018-04-25 at 11:55.","The student, Kyle Pieper, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2018-04-25 at 12:04.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2018-04-25 at 15:55.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #12480 on 2018-08-31 at 17:14:42","Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-04T20:31:57Z (GMT). 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The primary objectives of this work were to experimentally characterize the propulsion-airframe interactions inherent to DEP vehicles to aid in modeling and to explore and validate the use of DEP to perform vehicle-level flight control. A Cirrus SR22-T was chosen as a suitable airframe for DEP modifications and a 21% radio-controlled model was constructed and instrumented with a full data acquisition and flight control system to command and capture the aircraft’s state during flight. The baseline configuration of the Cirrus model was successfully flight tested to perform system identification multi-sine maneuvers, which were used in the creation and refinement of a high-fidelity flight dynamics model. Plans for a dynamically-scaled variant of this configuration were developed with weight and inertial scaling targets within 5% of the ideal values. For the DEP modifications, an extensive system engineering study was performed to balance weight, structure, power, electronics, aerodynamics and control requirements. A final design featuring a total of eight electric ducted fans located in two groups of four on the upper trailing edge of the left and right wing was selected. Wind tunnel testing of the selected electric ducted fans was conducted to validate thrust and temperature performance. A new set of wings were designed and constructed to mount the propulsors and integrate with the existing Cirrus model requiring minimal changes to the baseline design. A test stand mimicking the DEP wing was developed to safely test the entire propulsion system on the ground and provide preliminary analysis of implemented control maneuvers. Successful flight testing of the DEP vehicle is expected to validate the overall design and implementation of DEP-based control. Last, a study was performed to investigate the feasibility of scaling up the sub-scale DEP research vehicle to a limited range, full-size equivalent Cirrus SR22-T with DEP modifications using current hardware.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2018-08-31 without embargo terms","The student, Kyle Pieper, accepted the attached license on 2018-04-25 at 11:55.","The student, Kyle Pieper, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2018-04-25 at 12:04.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2018-04-25 at 15:55.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #12480 on 2018-08-31 at 17:14:42","Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-04T20:31:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 PIEPER-THESIS-2018.pdf: 8828438 bytes, checksum: 399ff1dd05648465d31f103f978ce318 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4208 bytes, checksum: d62e4110c04e2f6fb19427bad746fce7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-25"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101073"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2018 Kyle Chapman Pieper. All rights reserved."],"dc:subject":["distributed electric propulsion","dynamic scaling","propulsive control","flight testing","conceptual design","testbed aircraft","Cirrus SR22-T","boundary layer ingestion"],"dc:title":["Design, development and evaluation of a distributed electric propulsion testbed aircraft"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Aerospace Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:38Z"}