Evaluation of Flight Control System Architectures for the AH-64

The AH-64 would significantly benefit from an improved flight control system, particularly as the aircraft's requirements have evolved and continue to do so. To address this, multiple Vehicle Management System architectures are developed and presented for the AH-64 attack helicopter, each addressing several demanding and possibly conflicting future requirements, including Level 1 handling qualities, operating in degraded visual environments, autonomy, high-speed flight operation, and multiple vehicle coordinated operations. Architecture tradeoffs are performed with the understanding that the current AH-64 flight control system is mechanical with electrical partial authority augmentation, but also possesses a non-redundant full authority fly-by-wire emergency backup system. The various architectures are assessed as to how they satisfy the requirements. They are also assessed with respect to their relative costs, both for typical costs such as design, recurring, operating and sustainment, and training as well as other indirect costs such as size and weight. A methodology is developed to compare and contrast the architectures using informal qualitative-based scores assessed by subject matter experts from both industry and customer organizations, as well as scoring from Boeing program management with various operational experiences. The methodology assigns weightings to each requirement and cost criteria through the use of the Analytical Hierarchy Process. The results suggest that there are several likely cost-effective options, possibly with a higher potential return on investment than a conventional fly-by-wire (FBW) architecture. Some of these solutions are also incremental in nature, thereby providing more flexibility than the conventional FBW system.