Helicopter vertical stabilizer design considerations are receiving increasing emphasis from the helicopter community. Recent development programs experienced problems with respect to the empennage. Naval Postgraduate School Helicopter Design Course sophistication demands inclusion of vertical stabilizer parameters. The parameters are addressed in terms of conventional airfoil design considerations such as airfoils section, planform area, aspect ratio, camber, and sweep back angle. Specific to helicopters is the relationship to the tail rotor. The fundamental design tradeoff is maximum vertical stabilizer size to optimize directional stability and flight with zero tail rotor thrust contrasted to minimum size to optimize tail rotor blockage effects. A conceptual design procedure is developed herein. (Author)
Helicopter Vertical Stabilizer Design Considerations
1983
59 pages
Report
No indication
English