A Systems Approach to Rotorcraft Stability and Control Research

Abstract

Helicopters exhibit undesireable dynamic characteristics due to strong coupling that exists between longitudinal and lateral modes. In addition to being unstable at hover and low forward flight speeds, the helicopter has significantly different dynamic modal characterizing in hover and low speeds as compared to forward flight. For example, in hover, the body translational motion and pitching motion are decoupled from the heaving motion. In forward flight, the pitching motion and the vertical motion are strongly coupled. These dissimilar characteristics in hover and forward flight make piloting techniques more difficult and increase pilot workload and degrade handling qualities. This research has attempted a systems approach to rotorcraft stability and control. Keywords: Aerodynamic stability, Flight control systems, Aerodynamic characteristics.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 24, 1988
Accession Number
ADA201784

Entities

People

  • B. H. Tongue
  • C. M. Mckeithan
  • D. P. Schrage
  • D. Teare
  • J. V. Prasad
  • P. Fitzsimmons

Organizations

  • Georgia Tech

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Classification
  • Computer Programs
  • Control Systems
  • Control Systems Engineering
  • Control Theory
  • Engineering
  • Fixed Wing Aircraft
  • Flight Control Systems
  • Helicopters
  • Kalman Filters
  • Mathematical Models
  • Rotary Wing Aircraft
  • Simulators
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Aviation Science / Aeronautics.
  • Control Systems Engineering.