Investigation of Personal Aerial Vehicle Handling Qualities Requirements for Harsh Environmental Conditions

This paper describes the continuing research at the University of Liverpool in the myCopter project to develop handling qualities guidelines and criteria for a new category of aircraft - the personal aerial vehicle (PAV), which, it is envisaged, should demand no more skill to fly than that associated with driving a car today. Previously published research showed that a translational rate command (TRC) response type allowed a majority of 'flight-naïve' pilots to operate within desired performance limits in a series of hover and low speed tasks in good environmental conditions. This paper extends the research by exploring the impact of degrading the usable cue environment and introducing atmospheric disturbances on performance in these tasks. Results from simulation trials involving test subjects with little or no flight experience are reported, showing that, in general, task performance can be maintained with the TRC response type, although workload increases. The paper concludes that the TRC response type remains suitable for use by 'flight-naïve' pilots in PAVs, even in degraded environmental conditions.