Automated pilot assistance for wake vortex encounters

Abstract

Wake vortices pose a possible hazard for encountering aircraft in all phases of flight. Hence wake vortex encounters are to be avoided in any case. In case of an unintended wake vortex encounter special aircraft controllers can act as a safety net. Such an active wake vortex control system is being developed by the DLR Institute of Flight Systems based on feed-forward disturbance compensation. The control system has been tested with offline and pilot-in-the-loop investigations as well as with flight tests. It can be shown that the aircraft response can be improved significantly if the pilots are supported by an automatic wake assistance system. For the subjective assessment of the wake vortex encounters a dedicated pilot rating scale has been developed. The results show a clear tendency that the wake vortex controller improves the situation.