Final MTE And Level 1 HQ Criteria Report

The present report is the eleventh deliverable of the ACT-TILT project. It is a final report listing and commenting on the proposed Level 1 Handling Qualities (HQ) criteria identified for a Civil Tilt-rotor (CTR). Proposals are made for the quantitative and qualitative requirements to be taken into account. Although the involved partners did intensive work and four simulation trials were conducted at the University of Liverpool, resulting in pilot ratings of the ERICA Tilt-Rotor, still gaps and open questions remain. Especially the HQ requirements for a CTR flying in the conversion mode (CM) need further attention

Model of helicopter pilot's controls activity for shipboard operations

International audienceThe only approved means available to evaluate the dynamic behavior of the helicopter/pilot combination in the complex turbulent environment of the moving flight deck of a ship is the execution of actual at-sea flight tests. The development of an off-line simulation tool of helicopter shipboard operations for engineering and design purpose is desirable. The objective of this study is to identify the pilot’s controls strategy in order to provide prediction of the controls’ positions when flying typical on-shore representative shipboard maneuvers, namely, hover, “fore/aft” and “estern” approaches, into four different wind environment conditions. Operational pilots A, B, C and D performed a pilot-in-the-loop flight test simulation in the helicopter engineering flight simulator facility of ONERA Salon de Provence Center, so called PycsHel, in order to provide data to calibrate and validate the prediction of the basic SYCOS (SYnthesis through COnstrained Simulation) pilot model. The optimization process for training the pilot model from the piloted simulations data is divided into hover task and approach tasks, and uses the DIMSS PM (Dynamic Interface Modeling and Simulation System Product Metric) as metrics for estimating the pilot’s controls activity. Pilots A and B models are considered valid for the validation data set in hover. However, basic SYCOS model is not able to keep the predictions stable over 50 sec of flight of the approach tasks. Therefore, extensions to the basic SYCOS model are studied by implementing an attitude or an acceleration feedback parallel line, in order to provide stability strategy to the pilot’s controls activity prediction. The attitude feedback strategy is the only able to restore the SYCOS model stability for the approach data set. The extended SYCOS model with attitude feedback strategy is used for training and allows the validation of pilot’s activity model to approach type "estern" (pilot B). None pilot’s controls activity model is valid for the "fore/aft" approach task. The pilots C ("estern" approach) and D ("fore/aft" approach) extended SYCOS models are able to provide satisfactory predictions only for collective and pedals activities

VRS avoidance as active function on side-sticks

DLR and ONERA have a long-term cooperation on the evaluation of technologies for “easy flying” helicopters. Active inceptors are one of these promising technologies. They are expected to improve flight safety, provide workload reductions, and demonstrate operational benefits. During the last year, flight tests at the DLR have effectively shown how tactile cueing with active inceptors can reduce pilot workload and improve mission effectiveness [1]. Among the developed functions were load limitation and flight guidance functions

Simulation model fidelity enhancement using corrective force and moment increments: Review of activity performed in NATO-AVT Panel 296

Copyright © 2021 by the Vertical Flight Society. All rights reserved.The Applied Vehicle Technology (AVT) Panel of the NATO Science and Technology Organization has recently engaged a Research Task Group on the topic of rotorcraft flight simulation model fidelity. This group aimed to explore a comprehensive set of methods for flight mechanics simulation fidelity enhancement, including training simulation applications. Particular effort was also directed to the metrics used for simulation fidelity model assessment as suitable for the final intent of the model. The work presented in this paper was carried out in the framework of this Research Task Group, AVT-296, which examined seven different approaches; our paper focusses on just one of these. The objective was to assess flight-model renovation methods through four different applications. As a common approach, flight data from various helicopters were used to extract a set of flight dynamics information (state and control derivatives) that were used to compute corrective force and moment terms. The approach consists of a comparison between flight-test and flight mechanics model derivatives to compute delta forces and moments. These delta terms are added to the forces and moments through a linear combination and to generate the additional accelerations needed to capture any lacking dynamics. The derivatives that require updating need to be identified and, of course, will depend on the nature of the modelling deficiency. This paper shows how this method is applied to enhancing the lateral-directional oscillatory characteristics of flight models and how they can be upgraded to achieve higher fidelity for design and development applications but with special attention to meeting the fidelity requirements for flight training simulators

NATO AVT-365 Lecture Series: Rotorcraft Flight Simulation Model Fidelity Improvement and Assessment

Slides and Educational Notes for the Lecture Series NATO AVT-365 which presents results from the working group AVT-296 with the same titl