Aeronautical Testing Service, Inc. is an aeronautical consulting and manufacturing company involved in the engineering, development, and design of new and modified aircraft. Our primary emphasis is wind tunnel testing in support of FAA certification, but we regularly provide customers assistance with flight testing and landing gear drop testing.
ATS was originally created to help increase the safety and performance of general aviation aircraft. ATS originated the vortex generator modifications for light aircraft, starting with the Beech Baron. To this end ATS still designs and builds vortex generator kits for use on a variety of general aviation and agricultural aircraft. Many of the tools developed to support this work helped ATS evolve into its current form of aeronautical consulting and manufacturing company.
Aerodynamic Design and Analysis
We have many tools available for design and analysis of various aircraft and modifications. Our capabilities include:
- Airplane design.
- Wings and wing modifications.
- High lift systems.
- Propellers (including ducted fans).
- Engine installations.
- Intercooler design.
- Aerodynamic loads for aircraft certification purposes.
- Piloted six degree of freedom simulation.
- Computational Fluid Dynamics.
- Design of structural test fixtures.
Aircraft Certification
ATS, Inc. is the owner of more than 20 Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for modifications relating to general aviation and agricultural aircraft. Approval of many of the modifications by foreign certification agencies has also been awarded. ATS, Inc. has assisted, under contract, other companies on 30+ aircraft certification projects for which STCs were also awarded. Capabilities include the following:
- Flight testing.
- Federal Aviation Administration Designated Engineering Representative (FAA-DER) approval of flight test data.
- Flight test instrumentation, data acquisition, and analysis.
- Aircraft performance testing.
- Aircraft gross weight increases.
- Landing gear drop testing.
- Aircraft modifications, including engine upgrades.
- Aircraft flight manual creation.
We have multiple flight test data acquisition systems, including instrumentation for performance, and stability and control flight testing. We also have an extensive library of aerodynamic, structural, and stability parameter calculation programs as well as a substantial number of internally-authored performance analysis codes.
Computational Fluid Dynamics and Utility Computing
CFD is a rapidly expanding area for ATS. We have various 2D and 3D flow codes available to support modification and design work. Flow codes are:
- STAR-CCM+
- CFL3D
- Fun2D
- Fun3D
- INS2D
- NSU3D
- Overflow
- USM3D
All codes can be run on our 96 processor LINUX cluster. If you have another code that you would like to use, please contact us to find out more about our utility computing options.
Prototyping and Manufacturing
ATS has a full service machine shop and very experienced shop personnel who handle all our manufacturing jobs. Our machine shop is equipped with:
- CNC milling machines
- The latest Unigraphics NX CAD/CAM software
- Lathe
- Welding capabilities
- Sheet metal shear and brake
- Extensive machining and technical library
We are experienced in making plugs and molds for everything between very small parts and full-scale wings. We have designed and built aircraft production tooling including the CNC programming and machining of the hydroform dies for the SJ-30 and the DHC-2 Beaver rewing projects.
Wind Tunnel Testing
Wind tunnel testing is a major part of the service that ATS provides. We have built and tested models to support FAA certification for both internal and customer projects. Our engineers have vast experience solving stability and control and performance issues, lowering a projects risk and helping to meet certification goals. Since ATS "closes the loop" with model design, manufacturing best practices, and wind tunnel testing, we have developed the perfect combination of the least expensive, highest quality, and most productive wind tunnel models available anywhere.
Company Founder
Paul Robertson,
Owner and President of Aeronautical Testing Service, Inc.