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The aerostructures research group, led by John Monk, consists of engineers and scientists with a diverse range of skills. The core areas of expertise of the group are in aero-elasticity (flutter prediction technologies), aircraft and mission modelling and simulation, non-destructive technology (NDT) research, vibration measurement, helicopter-related technologies, structures-related technologies and unmanned aerial systems design and development.
Flutter technologies:
- Aircraft flutter prediction
- Aircraft flight clearance
- Aircraft store carriage loads prediction
- Aircraft ground vibration testing (GVT)
Aircraft-related capabilities
- Aircraft flight performance prediction
- Aircraft flying qualities prediction
- Aircraft aerodynamic design
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- Unmanned aerial vehicle design
- Flight testing techniques
- Wind-tunnel testing
Modelling capabilities
- 3D CAD modelling
- Computational fluid dynamics
- Man-in-the-loop (real time) aircraft and helicopter simulations
- Faster-than-real-time multi-entity mission simulations
Non-destructive technology
- Development of NDT techniques for composites
- Research into novel NDT techniques
General capabilities
- Helicopter-related technology development
- Systems engineering
- Optimisation techniques
- Vibration measurement.
- Flight clearance of over 200 store configurations on SAAF aircraft
- Flight clearance of numerous light aircraft and a light jet
- Development of novel flutter exciters
- Development of a light, two seat observation aircraft - Hummingbird
- Multi-entity mission air-to-ground attack modelling and simulation capability
- Multi-entity mission air-to-air attack modelling and simulation capability
- Oryx helicopter and Cheetah C flight simulators
- Various designs in composite materials
- A number of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle designs.
The group currently collaborates with Stellenbosch University in sense-and-avoid technologies.
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