21st Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Melbourne, Australia, 13-18 September, 1998
Paper ICAS-98-1.8.1

TESTING OF AN AUTOMATIC, LOW ALTITUDE, ALL TERRAIN GROUND COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM

Fergione J., Weigelt J.*, Baldonado M.*, Welch J., Griffin E.
Lockheed Martin, USA; *Edwards AFB, USA

Keywords: automatic, low altitude, all terrain, ground collision avoidance system

The expansion in the number of low-altitude flight operations, along with increased pilot workload, have made controlled flight into terrain the number one cause of loss of aircraft in the United States. The Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) program attempted to provide a system to eliminate that cause of aircraft loss. Although a similar. less sophisticated system had previously flown on a research F-16 aircraft. these tests would involve a more refined system and would be accomplished on a production representative F-16D aircraft. The processes that took place to actually conduct these tests were lengthy and complex. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of those processes and how they eventually led to a successful flight test. The major taskings that will be discussed are: the modification of the aircraft; the development of the mobile control room; the test plan and safety review process; test conducting; and the pilots perspective of the actual flight operations.

view full paper