Principal Investigator/adjunct faculty at IDMEC-IST. Professor, Canada Research Chair in Computational and Experimental Mechanics at University of Victoria, BC, Canada. Afzal Suleman obtained his BSc (Honours) and MSc in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London (UK) followed by a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of British Columbia in Canada (1992). He was awarded the National Academy of Sciences Fellowship at Wright-Patterson Air Force Research Labs, U.S. Air Force (1992-1994). He is Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers, Associate Fellow of AIAA, and Member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. He has served as a National Delegate at UN-COPUOS (1999-2005) and is currently a Panel Member and National Delegate at the NATO AVT Panel (1998-Present).

Unmanned Air Systems: A Tool in Novel Aircraft Design, Validation and Evaluation
Sistemas Aereos Autónomos (UAS): Instrumentos para Validação e Avaliação em Projecto Aeronáutico

The computational and experimental research program aims to improve the performance of complex aerospace engineering systems through advances in mathematical and computational models, and experimental methods that incorporate multidisciplinary analysis, design optimization and subscale UAV model flight testing for the synthesis of optimal and novel aircraft designs. The design and development of physical flight test platforms provide a low-cost opportunity to evaluate flight worthiness of new and unconventional aircraft configurations. The presentation will outline some of the experimental UAV flight test programs for evaluation of joined-wing and high-aspect ratio aircraft configurations in collaboration with OEMs. The UAV based flight test programs enable designers to retrieve quantifiable data and to provide a qualitative assessment of the aircraft handling qualities. It provides new perspectives that may lead to identification of design issues early in the development process thus avoiding expensive re-designs at the detailed design phase of the full scale transport aircraft.

PALESTRA