Piloted Simulation-Based Assessment of Simplified Vehicle Operations for Urban Air Mobility

Abstract

This work investigates the simplified vehicle operations paradigm, which seeks significant reductions in pilot workload and training requirements through the holistic design of flight control laws, control inceptors, and cockpit displays in the context of vertical takeoff and landing urban air mobility aircraft using piloted flight simulations. Two inceptor layouts, one similar to conventional fixed-wing aircraft and the other similar to conventional rotorcraft, differing in inceptor-to-command mappings, were incorporated into two research flight simulators. A lift-plus-cruise aircraft simulation model, a total energy control system–based fly-by-wire flight control architecture, and identical cockpit displays were used for both setups. Twenty-one participants, divided into three groups based on their prior piloting experience, were used to study pilot performance using representative handling qualities task elements. The piloted simulation data revealed that participants in each group were able to successfully perform the simulation tasks and allowed handling quality ratings to be calculated. They also highlighted instances of control coupling between inceptor axes in each setup for different tasks and the relative ease or difficulty of performing each task with the two inceptor designs.