VERTICAL LIFT AIRCRAFT AIR TO AIR COMBAT, THE ATTRIBUTES FOR SUCCESS

The purpose of this paper is to establish a baseline for the design of a dedicated air to air combat vertical lift aircraft. The design process presented is embedded in an operational analysis approach that produces a concept meeting the military user's demands. A tradeoff methodology that assigns a dollar figure to seconds of combat engagement time and a philosophy of what constitutes "military worth" drive the configuration issues. A compound helicopter featuring a ducted fan propulsor, spherical sensing and weapons firing, and appropriate military worth is presented for continued studies.