A400M flares trajectories without on-board cameras

Israel López Herreros, Airbus Defence and Space, Madrid, Spain
Francisca Coll Herrero, Airbus Defence and Space, Madrid, Spain

Abstract

The A400M DASS Certification Plan requires the analysis of the safe separation of flares from A400M within its flight envelope. Several flight tests of safe separation have been performed to validate the model used by aerodynamics department to calculate the theoretical flare trajectories. This work has been done in the past, applying photogrammetry techniques to the films extracted from on-board high speed cameras to cover rear dispensers.

New front dispensers have to be validated and the actual on-board cameras don’t cover all the flare trajectories. A solution using on-board cameras is very expensive and timeconsuming. Two disruptive solutions were proposed.

First solution consists in using two cinetheodolites on ground with a very small field of view and a tracking system to follow the aircraft.

And the second and final implemented solution consists in using two synchronized cameras installed with tripods inside of a chase aircraft.

The aim of this document is to present a methodology used to calculate a real case of flares trajectories on A400M ejected from front dispensers using two cameras installed in a chase aircraft.