QuickSilver Aerospace LLC

Your Partner in Aircraft Test and Certification

Part 23 & Part 25 Certification with Broad Experience in

  • Aircraft Performance
  • Test Instrumentation
  • Strain Gages
  • Ground Vibration Testing (GVT) and Flutter Testing
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Wind Tunnel Testing
  • Aircraft Icing
  • Program Management
  • Aircraft Document Supplements
  • Flight Simulator Development
  • And more…

Aircraft Performance

Analytiical performance estimates for sales, marketing, and product development; or certified performance calculations for inclusion in Aircraft Flight Manuals derived from first-principles, CFD, or flight test.

Test Instrumentation

Decades of experience developing airborne flight test data acquisition systems, and supporting instrumentation on hundreds of aircraft and certification projects gives us the experience to quickly design and implement a robust instrumentation package for your project.

Strain Gages

The unique and hostile aircraft ground and flight test environment requires special attention to strain gage design and installation methods. We have capability for many hundreds of channels of strain gage signal conditioning and our installation team can help you get it right the first time.

GVT & Flutter Testing

Flutter testing is a critical safety element of many flight test campaigns and GVT is often an important precursor to flight flutter. We have several different GVT excitation/acquisition systems covering the range of aircraft sizes from GA to the largest commercial aircraft, and are well versed in the safe conduct of flight flutter testing.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Leverage our in-house CFD capabilities to support your configuration development efforts, assist with aerodynamic design, develop certified aerodynamic loads and performance, and avoids dive testing requirements of 14 CFR Part 25.251, or exercise our CFD capabilities for myriad other tasks.

Wind Tunnel Testing

With a strong wind tunnel background (several of us at QuickSilver started in wind tunnel testing before moving to flight testing and we built the data system that runs the University of Washington Kirsten Wind Tunnel) we have a unique vantage point
to advise on the best use and tradeoffs between wind tunnel, CFD, and full scale flight test. If wind tunnel testing is right for your program we have intimate knowledge of the process and management to run it effectively.

Aircraft Icing

Coupling our CFD capability with LEWICE allows ice impingement and accretion analyses. Leveraging our significant manufacturing capability we can then fabricate your ice shapes for dry air flight testing if required.

Program Management

With nearly 200 programs of experience we have seen an incredible number of certification management methods and styles, and can bring that experience to efficiently bring your project from concept to certification while avoiding common pitfalls.

Aircraft Document Supplements

Allow us to bring our engineering expertise and attention to detail to your Aircraft Flight Manual Supplement (AFMS), creating an aesthetic and useful tool for pilots, operators, and owners of your STC. We can also work with the your OPS department, Jeppesen Opsdata, or other aircraft performance data providers to update their performance models for your new aircraft configuration.

Flight Simulator Development

We can help you collect the flight test data you need to create or update your Level D flight simulator models. We have participated in several fixed and rotary wing simulator programs, bridging the gap between sim development and the special rigors of flight test.

An Array of Resources

With our extensive partnerships with the best in the industry we can offer you “turn key” certification support managing all aspects of your product
development/certification program, or we can fill in the holes in your existing
certification team.

We have a particular expertise with instrumentation, and maintain a ~$3M inventory of specialized instrumentation and test equipment to ensure that your program has what it needs for successful data acquisition. We maintain our own NIST traceable metrology and calibration lab to reduce reliance on outside vendors and reduce turnaround times on common sensors. We have a highly modular data acquisition system that can provide a simple laptop based lightweight solution for small acquisition tasks, or can scale up to hundreds of channels and millions of samples per second incorporating a myriad of sensors and signal types. We pride ourselves in our creativity, versatility, and capability, and install all of of the equipment that we provide. If you don’t see what you think you need, just ask.

Some of our instrumentation capabilities include:

  • Data acquisition and data processing software
  • The usual temperatures/pressures/voltages/currents/frequencies
  • Strain gage installations and over 300 channels of signal conditioning equipment
  • Electronic pressure scanners
  • Trailing cones
  • Nose booms
  • Accelerometers
  • Strip chart recorders
  • Ground Vibration Test shakers and GVT support equipment
  • Aircraft data bus (ARINC 429, ARINC 639, ASCB-D) transceivers
  • Power conversion/conditioning
  • Cockpit and in-flight engineering displays
  • Video cameras

Our experience is as diverse as the aircraft we work on; from a Piper Cub to a 747, if you have an aircraft project let us see if we can help.

We look forward to being your partner in aircraft test and certification.