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A Comparison of Techniques for Estimating STOL Aircraft Response to Low Altitude Turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2016

L D Reid
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies
A B Markov
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies
W O Graf
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies
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Summary

This paper describes four techniques that can be applied to predict the response of an aircraft (including STOL and VTOL vehicles) to wind shear and turbulence during the landing approach. A comparison among the techniques is carried out by predicting the longitudinal response of a light STOL transport to atmospheric conditions within the earth’s planetary boundary layer. The turbulence data were generated by a boundary-layer wind tunnel and by an instrumented helicopter. Of the four techniques described, the flight path correlation technique is the most recent, having been developed to handle some of the problems facing the analysis of STOL and VTOL aircraft response. The other three approaches are the power spectral density technique, the equivalent deterministic input technique, and the in-flight turbulence measurement technique. The practical features of each of these are outlined and typical response predictions are plotted as a function of height during the landing approach. In general terms it was concluded that the techniques requiring the greatest amount of data-collection sophistication and computation (the in-flight data measurement and flight path correlation techniques) would produce the best results.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society. 1977

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References

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