Control Sensitivity, Bandwidth and Disturbance Rejection Concerns for Advanced Rotorcraft

A series of in-flight evaluations studying the effects of the variation in control response bandwidth, control sensitivity and disturbance rejection capability on the handling qualities of rotorcraft was carried out on the NAE Bell 205 Airborne Simulator. This paper presents an overview of this activity and will present preliminary results from the first phase of the experiment which dealt variations in roll axis characteristics. This paper also contains a review of the concept of disturbance rejection and a discussions regarding the measurement and documentation of such a characteristic.