A Framework for Cost-Benefit Analysis of Tiltrotor Aircraft

The contrasting set of capabilities offered by rotorcraft relative to fixed wing aircraft has invited many efforts to quantify and weigh the precise economic cost of vertical lift against its operational benefits. In the case of convertible rotor aircraft such as tiltrotors, which possess a set of capabilities overlapping those of fixed and rotary wing aircraft, the assessment of costs and benefits available in literature has been largely confined to survey-type studies of concepts at the preliminary level with many design assumptions made. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for evaluating the costs and benefits of tiltrotors while exploring the impact of many of the assumptions made in the previous works and their impact on design choices.