Dynamic stability and Control Characteristics of The AEROCRANE Hybrid Heavy Lift Vehicle

The AEROCRANE is a unique concept for a low speed heavy lift vehicle. It is a hybrid configuration in which vertical force equilibrium is obtained by a combination of buoyant lift from a spherical centerbody and thrust from rotor blades mounted on the equator of the centerbody. Results of an experimental investigation to determine the trim and dynamic stability and control characteristics of the AEROCRANE are presented and discussed. The experimental program involved measurements of the trim conditions at various forward flight speeds and time histories of the vehicle response to control. A Froude-scaled dynamic model in free-flight was employed for the experiments. A theory is presented for predicting these characteristics. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment was obtained for the hovering dynamics. Preliminary comparisons of experimental forward flight trim conditions with theory show good agreement.