Control Margin Awareness of the AW609 TiltRotor under Asymmetric Aerodynamic Flight Conditions

The ability to model and evaluate aircraft performance prior to flight has generated a significant increase in safety margin in the flight testing of experimental aircraft. Prior to the artificial icing campaign for the AW609 aircraft, a flight model of predicted aerodynamic behavior was used to rapidly generate a control margin monitoring and warning system, which was implemented on-board the aircraft during testing to provide awareness of predicted aircraft behavior under icing conditions.