System overview of the NASA Dryden Integrated Test Facility

The Integrated Test Facility, built at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility, provides new real-time test capabilities for emerging research aircraft. An overview of the test facility and the real-time systems developed to operate this unique facility is presented. The facility will reduce flight test risk by minimizing the difference between the flight and ground test environments. This ground test environment is provided by combining real-time flight simulation with the actual aircraft. A brief introduction to the facility is followed by a discussion of the generic capabilities of its real-time systems. The simulation system with flight hardware and the remotely augmented vehicle system is described. An overview of many hardware systems developed for the facility follows. The benefits of applying simulation to hardware-in-the-loop testing on the X-31 Flight Research Program are presented.