HELICOPTER DESIGN OPTIMIZATION FOR MANEUVERABILITY AND AGILITY

Design guidelines are developed for improving the maneuverability and agility of a notional light helicopter. The impact of individual aircraft design parameters on specific maneuvers is assessed by a dynamic flight simulation technique. Weight sensitivity to the same design parameters is established by parametrically resizing the helicopter to perform the same mission. Maneuvers studied include hover bob-up, acceleration, deceleration, climb, turns and high speed pull-up. Some maneuvers can be significantly improved with little weight penalty by judicious tradeoff of design parameters. Other maneuvers require substantial weight investment to achieve meaningful improvement. Installed power, blade loading, and blade Lock number are the most weight-efficient design variables for improving overall maneuverability. Disk loading and tip speed strongly influence individual maneuvers, but are less attractive design optimizers because they affect different maneuvers in opposite directions. Identification of the individual maneuvers most critical to the helicopter's mission role is a needed prerequisite to cost effective design optimization.