This paper describes a method for using inverse simulation to obtain a preliminary assessment of helicopter handling qualities. Formal descriptions of standard manoeuvres, defined to establish the handling qualities of military helicopters, are used to drive an inverse simulation of a subject helicopter. The simulation generates the controls and states of the helicopter as it executes the manoeuvre and the results may be used to calculate values of quickness, a parameter defined to measure responsiveness. Initial results reveal that in the context of inverse simulation quickness is independent of vehicle configuration when, as specified in the requirements, the quickness is based on the helicopter's kinematic states. An alternative quickness parameter, associated with the control displacements required to fly the manoeuvre is shown to be capable of discriminating between the pilot workload involved in flying two different configurations through the same manoeuvre.

We wish to propose that the word “receptance” should be used instead of “admittance” as applied to mechanical systems (see R. and M. 2,000, 1947). By this, we mean that if a generalised disturbing force Fse iωt is applied at the s th generalised co-ordinate q s of a linear oscillatory system, then the response at the r th generalised co-ordinate is given by

q s = αrs Fse iωt

where αrs is the “Cross-receptance” between q r and q s. If r = s, then αrs would be the “direct receptance” at q s.

This paper considers the dynamic stall vortex of importance in helicopter rotor aerodynamics and discusses previous measurements of its convection speed. It emerges that an anomaly exists between the available data sets, i.e. that some workers find that the convection speed is dependent upon the aerofoil motion, while others find that this is not the case. Measurements of the convection speed from data gathered at Glasgow University for a variety of aerofoil shapes and motion types are then presented, which support the conclusion that the dynamic stall vortex convection speed is independent of aerofoil type and motion type to a first order.

In circumstances where a pilot is forced to follow a specified flight path, such as during a landing approach or in nap-of-the-earth conditions, it will be shown that there is an apparent modification of the helicopter's stability characteristics. This effect is identified in helicopter flight data from nap-of-the-earth agility trials where oscillations are observed in the time histories of the pilot's control inputs and the vehicle's response. A technique of predicting the nature of these oscillations using a linearised helicopter mathematical model is developed. The model is inverted to give the response of the unconstrained states in terms of those strongly controlled by the need to remain on a specific flight path. Results are compared with data from flight trials and it is shown that good correlation between the period of the oscillations in the flight data and the predicted values can be obtained.

We are now, I believe, at a time of crisis in aeronautics and in Great Britain the sense of crisis is made more acute on account of the issue by the Government of the White Paper on Defence for 1957. This paper announces vitally important changes of Government policy which are intimately concerned with aeronautics. For example, the policy is to make the English Electric P.l Supersonic Fighter the last of the manned fighter aircraft in Britain and to concentrate effort in defensive aircraft upon the unmanned guided weapon.

This paper derives innovative techniques for use in the trimming and stability analysis of advanced rotorcraft simulations. It begins by exploiting the symmetry of the rotor to produce an efficient definition of periodic trim which is applicable to rotorcraft simulations. This definition is then expanded to produce a trimming algorithm which is capable of concurrently ascertaining the initial conditions and control inputs necessary to trim latest generation simulation models to a specified periodic trim state. The algorithm is based on a periodic shooting approach with Newton-Raphson iteration and exploits the symmetry of the rotor to minimise computational workload. The definition of periodic trim is then further developed to produce a technique by which the stability characteristics of rotorcraft can be ascertained from advanced simulation models. This technique is based on a Floquet approach and again exploits the symmetry of the rotor to reduce computational burden. The paper concludes by presenting results obtained when the stability characteristics of a tiltrotor simulation model are investigated.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have seen a rapid growth in utilisation for reconnaissance, mostly using single UAVs. However, future utilisation of UAVs for applications such as bistatic synthetic aperture radar and stereoscopic imaging, will require the use of multiple UAVs acting cooperatively to achieve mission goals. In addition, to de-skill the operation of UAVs for certain applications will require the migration of path-planning functions from the ground to the UAV. This paper details a computationally efficient algorithm to enable path-planning for single UAVs and to form and re-form UAV formations with active collision avoidance. The algorithm presented extends classical potential field methods used in other domains for the UAV path-planning problem. It is demonstrated that a range of tasks can be executed autonomously, allowing high level tasking of single and multiple UAVs in formation, with the formation commanded as a single entity.

Stability criteria for systems governed by linear differential equations with constant coefficients are discussed in a general way. Detailed treatment of the sextic equation includes a simple and expeditious scheme for computing the test functions.

Motivated by a lack of sufficient local and national computing facilities for computational fluid dynamics simulations, the Affordable Systems Computing Unit (ASCU) was established to investigate low cost alternatives. The options considered have all involved cluster computing, a term which refers to the grouping of a number of components into a managed system capable of running both serial and parallel applications. The present work aims to demonstrate the utility of commodity processors for dedicated batch processing. The performance of the cluster has proved to be extremely cost effective, enabling large three dimensional flow simulations on a computer costing less than £25k sterling at current market prices. The experience gained on this system in terms of single node performance, message passing and parallel performance will be discussed. In particular, comparisons with the performance of other systems will be made. Several medium-large scale CFD simulations performed using the new cluster will be presented to demonstrate the potential of commodity processor based parallel computers for aerodynamic simulation.

Quantitative and qualitative results of a series of experiments conducted on a rotor in ground effect at low forward speeds are presented. The velocity over a wide area of the ground effect wake was measured using particle image velocimetry, and the evolution of the flow is described as the forward speed increases. The formation of a dust cloud leading to so-called helicopter brown-out was simulated through a series of flow visualisation experiments. The technique involved sprinkling a fine dust on the ground below and ahead of the rotor. Larger dust clouds were observed at lower forward speed, and the dust cloud penetrated into the areas of the flow including those where vorticity levels were of low magnitude and occasional velocity fluctuations from the mean were large.

The use of solar sail propulsion is investigated for both Mercury orbiter (MO) and Mercury sample return missions (MeSR). It will be demonstrated that solar sail propulsion can significantly reduce launch mass and enhance payload mass fractions for MO missions, while MeSR missions are enabled, again with a relatively low launch mass. Previous investigations of MeSR type missions using solar electric propulsion have identified a requirement for an Ariane V launcher to deliver a lander and sample return vehicle. The analysis presented in this paper demonstrates that, in principle, a MeSR mission can be enabled using a single Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle, leading to significant reductions in launch mass and mission costs. Similarly, it will be demonstrated that the full payload of the ESA Bepi Colombo orbiter mission can be delivered to Mercury using a Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle, rather than Ariane V, again leading to a reduction in mission costs.

This paper presents a simple and efficient way of calculating stall flutter using the ONERA aerodynamic model. At first, the model is presented along with a solution technique based on the harmonic balance method. The parameters of the model are estimated using data either from experiments or CFD calculations and optimised using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The aerodynamic model is then coupled with a structural one using the Rayleigh-Ritz formulation and a solution technique is devised based on the Newton- Raphson method. Finally the model is used to ‘fit’ aerodynamic loads of oscillating aerofoils generated using CFD. The aeroelastic analysis of a helicopter blade is finally undertaken using material properties found in the literature. The model appears to be robust and efficient and able to fit the unsteady aerodynamics of various cases. The proposed aeroelastic analysis was also found to be efficient and capable of providing adequate results for preliminary analysis of stall flutter.

The light gyroplane is a class of aircraft popular with amateur constructors and pilots. As a result, there is limited design guidance available since formal technical resources are not available to the community. Rule-of-thumb, intuition and historical experience tend to influence design evolution. Empennage configuration is a prime example of this paradigm, and the objective of this Paper is to explore those factors that influence horizontal stabiliser effectiveness with particular reference to dynamic stability. An individual-blade rotorcraft mathematical model is coupled with a vorticity-based flowfield code, necessary to capture the highly interactional aerodynamics associated with empennage location at the rear of the airframe. A parametric study of horizontal stabiliser location shows that maximum benefit from the energising influence of the propeller slipstream is obtained if the surface is placed near the edge of the propeller wake. Further, traditional design parameters such as tail volume ratio offer an incomplete indicator of empennage effectiveness without consideration of airframe blockage and propeller slipstream. It is concluded that empennage sizing calculations can be straightforward, but require due consideration of the impact of the close-coupled nature of the vehicle on stabilising surface aerodynamic effectiveness.

This paper considers the effects of both wind-tunnel walls and a downstream support structure, on the aerodynamics of a 70° delta wing. A RANS model of the flow was used with the wind-tunnel walls and supports being modelled with inviscid wall boundary conditions. A consistent discretisation of the domain was employed such that grid dependence effects were consistent in all solutions, thus any differences occurring were due to varying boundary conditions (wall and support locations). Comparing solutions from wind-tunnel simulations and simulations with farfield conditions, it has been shown that the presence of tunnel walls moves the vortex breakdown location upstream. It has also been seen that vortex strength, helix angle, and mean incidence also increase, leading to a more upstream breakdown location in wind-tunnels. The secondary separation line was also observed to move outboards. It was observed that for high Reynolds numbers, with a support downstream of the wing, vortex breakdown can be delayed due to blockage effects providing the vortices do not impinge on the support This was observed to be the case for smaller supports also.

This paper describes the development of an approach to handling qualities investigation that can be applied at an early stage in t he design of the vehicle. It makes use of inverse simulation techniques, together with a pilot model to provide an integrated description of the man-machine control system. In order to incorporate pilot effects into data generated by inverse simulation, the output from an inverse simulation run is applied as input to a closed-loop system model that includes the vehicle dynamics and a simple parametric model of the pilot. Parameters of the pilot model are determined by optimisation and the pilot effect is added to the system output. Validation of the approach is achieved through a case study involving a predefined mission task involving a lateral manoeuvre. Equalisation characteristics estimated for each pilot are compared with those found by inverse simulation for the same manoeuvre. This approach may be applied using a simple real-time simulation on a desk-top computer and could be of value in identifying any potential deficiencies in a helicopter flight control system at an early stage in its development

This paper reviews work on the flexural centre of elastic cantilever beams and contains a number of hitherto unpublished results, including a formula giving the position of the flexural centre in terms of the Prandtl torsional stress function.

The appearance of the note by Jacobs has prompted the preparation of a review of this subject which is all the more desirable as several of the investigations made shortly before the 1939-45 War were never published and others, although published, seem to be in danger of being overlooked. The present paper contains a number of hitherto unpublished results. The question of nomenclature is worthy of mention since general agreement is lacking. Some of the names used are flexural centre, centre of flexure, elastic centrum and centre of shear but a complete search of the literature would probably lead to the discovery of yet other names. The terms “centre of shear” and “elastic centrum” seem vague and fail to indicate that the point referred to has any special relation to flexure. We shall here use the name “flexural centre” exclusively.

We envisage here that it is desired to evaluate (using a digital computer) the integral of a function f (x, y) with respect to x (say), along a curve γ in the xy-plane; the value of the function and of the co-ordinates of the curve being known only at discrete, and possibly irregularly spaced, points of γ. Such a problem frequently arises, especially where γ is a closed curve: as for instance in aerodynamics when it is desired to estimate the force components and pitching moment inferred from an experimentally determined set of pressures taken over an aerofoil; here the function values are related to the pressure measurements and γ is the aerofoil contour.

Cycloidal rotors are a novel form of propulsion system that can be adapted to various forms of transport such as air and marine vehicles, with a geometrical design differing significantly from the conventional screw propeller. Research on cycloidal rotor design began in the early 1930s and has developed throughout the years to the point where such devices now operate as propulsion systems for various aerospace applications such as micro air vehicles, unmanned air vehicles and compound helicopters. The majority of research conducted on the cycloidal rotor’s aerodynamic performance have not assessed mitigating the dynamic stall effect, which can have a negative impact on the rotor performance when the blades operate in the rotor retreating side. A solution has been proposed to mitigate the dynamic stall effect through employment of active, compliant leading-edge morphing. A review of the current state of the art in this area is presented. A two-dimensional, implicit unsteady numerical analysis was conducted using the commercial computational fluid dynamics software package STAR CCM+, on a two-bladed cycloidal rotor. An overset mesh technique, otherwise known as a chimera mesh, was used to apply complex transient motions to the simulations. Active, compliant leading-edge morphing is applied to an oscillating NACA 0015 aerofoil to attempt to mitigate the dynamic stall whilst maintaining the positive dynamic lift coefficient (Cl) contributions. It was verified that by applying a pulsed input leading-edge rotational morphing schedule, the leading-edge vortex does not fully form and the large flow separation is prevented. Further work in this investigation will focus on coupling the active, leading-edge motion to the cycloidal rotor model with the aim to maximise aerodynamic performance.

This paper presents a survey of published works on ducted fans for aeronautical applications. Early and recent experiments on full- or model-scale ducted fans are reviewed. Theoretical studies, lower-order simulations and high-fidelity CFD simulations are also summarised. Test matrices of several experimental and numerical studies are compiled and discussed. The paper closes with a summary of challenges for future ducted fan research.