AN ADVANCED FLY-BY-WIRE FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR AIRBORNE RESEARCH - CONCEPT TO REALITY

NASA Ames Research Center in cooperation with the US Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate (AFDD) is developing a research rotorcraft equipped with a full-authority, high-bandwidth, fully-programmable research flight control system (RFCS) installed on a JUH-60A Black Hawk helicopter known as the Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL). The RFCS is designed to support numerous and varied flight test programs planned for the RASCAL, many of which will use the computational and I/O capability of the RFCS alone, while others will use the full complement of flight controls design, development, simulation, and testing tools that the RASCAL facility provides. The RASCAL RFCS development is complete; integration testing on the aircraft is in progress. First flight of the airborne system is expected later this year and complete flight qualification by FY2001.