Salient design features of a new NASA/Army research rotorcraft - the Rotorcraft-Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL) - are described. Using a UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter as a baseline vehicle, the RASCAL will be a flying laboratory capable of supporting the research requirements of major NASA and Army guidance, control, and display research programs. The paper describes the research facility requirements of these programs together with other critical constraints on the design of the research system, including safety-of-flight. Research program schedules demand a phased development approach, wherein specific research capability milestones are met and flight research projects are flown throughout the complete development cycle of the RASCAL. This development approach is summarized, and selected features of the research system are described. The research system includes a full-authority, programmable, fault-tolerant/fail-safe, fly-by-wire flight control system and a real-time obstacle detection and avoidance system which will generate low-altitude guidance commands to the pilot on a wide field-of-view, color helmet-mounted display.
Preliminary Design Features of the RASCAL: A NASA /Army Rotorcraft in-Flight Simulator
1993
16 pages
Report
No indication
English
Aircraft , Aeronautics , Test Facilities & Equipment , Flight control , Flight simulators , Flight tests , Helicopter control , Research aircraft , Rotary wing aircraft , Helicopter design , Laboratories , Uh-60a helicopter , Flight safety , Fly by wire control , Helmet mounted displays , Low altitude , Nap-of-the-earth navigation , Obstacle avoidance
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1996
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