Flutter Certification of SKYCAR Aircraft: Rational Analysis and Flight Tests

SKYCAR is a CS-23 category aircraft designed and produced by OMA SUD to be the actual sole multi-utility/multipurpose aircraft in the General Aviation High Performance Piston marketplace with an opening bonnet on fly. The out-of-standards configuration -characterized by a double vertical tail surmounted by a fully movable horizontal tail and connected to the fuselage by means of two large boomsrepresented the key-reason of a quite challenging proof of compliance to EASA requirements in terms of flutter instability. Due to the inapplicability of consolidated simplified criteria, rational analyses supported by test evidence were considered mandatory, thus demanding for a wide set of numerical and experimental activities to be performed. In this paper a general overview of such activities has been presented by pointing out the used approaches, analysis methods as well as the numerical tools implemented on their base.