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DTIC ADA170957: USAF Test Pilot School. Performance Phase Textbook. Volume 1

Aircraft performance, in its most general sense configuration, can be defined as the flight achievements an aircraft must execute for successful mission accomplishment. Obviously, expected performance parameters must be an integral part of the design process of an aircraft. Given certain performance expectations by the customer, the designer must make decisions regarding wing loading, power plant selection, airfoil selection, planform configuration, and myriad other considerations. All of these help to tailor the design to give the aircraft certain desired performance characteristics. It is also certain that actual performance characteristics will not always be the same as those predicted by the designer. Herein lies the need for performance flight testing. Performance flight testing is defined as the process of determining aircraft performance characteristics, or in a more modern sense, evaluation of the energy gaining and losing capability of the aircraft.

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