Developing flight control laws for unstable aerodynamic configurations requires exhaustive validation. We demonstrate how virtual iron birds eliminate months of physical rig building.
Running 500,000 automated flight simulations across combinations of extreme center of gravity (CG), asymmetric icing, and turbulent gusts confirmed that fly-by-wire envelope protection never allowed aircraft departure.
When engineers transitioned from virtual iron bird software emulators to physical flight computers on the test airframe, zero control law regressions or unexpected dynamic oscillations were observed.