Assessing the Effect of Lift Position on Helicopter Recovery to a Twin-Island Aircraft Carrier using Piloted Flight Simulation

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation of the air flow over the flight deck of a twin-island aircraft carrier with the ship's lifts in a raised and lowered position, and the subsequent effect on the helicopter and on pilot workload. Computational Fluid Dynamics was used to model the unsteady flow over the flight deck in a 40 kt wind approaching from 60°starboard. The turbulence intensity and velocity flow field produced over the flight deck for each lift configuration was analyzed and compared. The unsteady air flow computed for each lift position was combined with a flight dynamics model of a helicopter configured to represent a SH-60B Seahawk an integrated with a full-motion flight simulator. To analyze the effect of the two airwakes on the helicopter and on pilot workload, a series of simulated flight trials were conducted in which the pilot performed landings to the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. The results show that while the lift configuration does affect the air flow over the flight deck, the effect on pilot workload is dependent on the location on the flight deck the pilot is landing to.