Development and Simulation Testing of High-Speed Evasive and Attack MTEs for Rotorcraft Handling Qualities Evaluation

Abstract

The Vertical Lift Consortium (VLC)\National Rotorcraft Technology Center (NRTC) project, "Rotorcraft Handling Qualities Requirements for Future Configurations and Missions" is a U.S. Government and industry co-funded research project intended to develop mission task elements (MTEs) to ensure desired handling qualities of high-speed rotorcraft are achieved. These new high-speed tasks must fit into the mission-oriented approach already established by ADS-33E-PRF. The work presented in this paper summarizes the development and simulation testing of two new high-speed MTEs, one attack and one evasive. These new MTEs, Ground Attack and Break Turn, were developed from fixed-wing and rotorcraft handling specifications and papers. Four aircraft configurations were used to evaluate the ability of the Ground Attack and Break Turn MTEs to identify known handling qualities deficiencies. The results of the evaluation showed the Ground Attack and Break Turn MTEs are suitable tasks for assessing rotorcraft handling qualities in high-speed forward flight. The handling qualities ratings (HQRs) obtained from the Ground Attack and Break Turn MTEs were within ±1 HQR of the Depart/Abort and Slalom MTEs for each configuration evaluated. The agreement of the HQRs among the different MTEs indicated the new proposed MTEs were able to detect the known handling qualities deficiencies to the same level as the current ADS-33E-PRF MTEs but at a higher forward flight speed.