Technical Basis For The STOL Characteristics Of The McDonnell Douglas/USAF YC-15 Prototype Airplane

This paper presents the basic technology for making the McDonnell Douglas YC-15 the prototype of an effective military STOL airplane. Emphasis is placed on those technical elements essential to providing good performance and flying qualities in the spectrum of STOL operational modes, while retaining good productivity for a matrix of off-design transport missions.

The goal for the prototype is to demonstrate that the externally blown flap propulsive-lift airplane has STOL flying qualities, transport productivity, and design features well suited to the military tactical transport role.

Emphasis on STOL technology to provide excellent control characteristics, low pilot workload, and generally good low-speed flying qualities, while paying careful attention to operational considerations for configuration development, is probably as important to the acceptability of the AMST as the more narrow look at maximizing payload/radius performance.