How aerospace manufacturers replace expensive flight test hours with certified ground simulation evidence.
Operating an experimental prototype aircraft costs upwards of $50,000 per flight hour, and gathering edge-of-the-envelope flutter and crosswind landing data carries immense financial and safety risks.
Under FAA Order 8110.4C, aviation authorities grant official certification credit for tests conducted on validated HIL rigs, provided the simulator's aerodynamic and mechanical fidelity has been rigorously verified against real flight data.
Conducting thousands of flight test points virtually on HIL rigs allows manufacturers to enter flight test campaigns with mature, de-bugged software, accelerating type certification by 6 to 12 months.