Good estimation of aerodynamic coefficients is of fundamental importance in the design and development process of an aircraft. Generally, these parameters are obtained using analytical, numerical and experimental methods, which are sometimes either inaccurate or very expensive. The use of subscale aircraft is becoming increasingly common in the study and evaluation of new aircraft concepts. Flight testing results in an efficient solution for obtaining parameters that can define drag characteristics. This project presents a solution for achieving the drag aerodynamic model from the design and manufacturing of a micro engine thrust measuring system integrated on subscale aircraft. Strain gauge technology permits to identify the stresses that the engine forces cause to the aircraft internal structure by analysing the strain of several strategic zones of the engine mounting created for this purpose. Different structural support geometries have been presented and stress-analysed together with the design of the appropriate strain gauge model conguration in order to select and manufacture a system that represents a good compromise between all the requirements while ensuring the quality and accuracy of the data acquired. After calibration, installation and set-up, the system is ready for real in-flight measurements.

Fatigue is a well-recognized issue in lightweight and high-performance aircraft structures. As fatigue failures have led to serious accidents and caused significant economic impact in the past, design against fatigue is crucial. Fatigue testing of full-scale aircraft as well as components is an important tool for the advance identification of potential fatigue issues in both new and operational aircraft. Furthermore, coupon testing is used extensively to obtain allowables for materials and structural details to be used in the design process. To obtain accurate results from fatigue testing, not only the test object but also the used load spectrum must accurately represent reality. If the aircraft is operational, an accurate load spectrum can be obtained by measuring the loads in-flight during a sufficiently long period of normal operation of the aircraft. However, the in-flight measured loads data contains an extraordinarily large number of cycles, resulting in long and uneconomical test durations. This thesis aims to propose a method for the selection of an optimal filtering level for fatigue test spectra developed from in-flight measured loads. The thesis also discusses and recommends methods for in-flight measurement of loads, cycle counting as well as damage evaluation using a crack-growth approach. Furthermore, ways to validate the proposed method and its practical application are discussed. An example filtering study is conducted using four different specimens chosen to represent typical structural details of aircraft. The study uses real in-flight measured loads of a light aircraft and also discusses temperature compensation of the loads data. The effect of filtering on fatigue damage is evaluated using crack-growth simulations conducted at a range of filtering and stress levels.  The results show that a remarkable reduction of testing time is possible and as many as 99 % of all cycles in the studied flight load history can be discarded without significantly reducing fatigue damage. The allowable filtering level is shown to differ between the specimens and the different stages of fatigue crack growth. In addition, the applied stress level is found to have a consistent effect on the allowable filtering level.