A Study to Improve Flying Qualities in IMC for Civil Helicopters

One of the major problems that prevent the prevalence of civil helicopters is that safe and reliable dispatch is not established in IMC. Improvement of flying qualities in IMC is mandatory to resolve this problem. We have studied to improve flying qualities in IMC by combining FBW flight control technology, cockpit display technology, and guidance control technology. We have performed piloted flight simulation test. It was found that the sophisticated control law and enhanced cockpit display system contributed to the expansion of flight envelope in IMC. We have performed 0 kt hovering in this piloted flight simulation test.