Preliminary designs were developed for four generically different V/STOL airplane concepts. Two of the airplanes used lift/cruise fans and were designed to satisfy high altitude, subsonic Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) mission requirements. The other two airplanes used different jet lift and lift/cruise propulsion concepts and were designed for supersonic, Deck Launched Intercept (DLI) mission requirements. The sensitivities of each airplane to provisions for flying qualities were evaluated and were related to selected flying qualities characteristics. The study outlines a procedure and methodology that can be followed in future studies for assessing design sensitivity to flying qualities. The assessment procedure can be relatively simple in hover and cruise flight regimes, but may require extensive analysis in forward flight and transition flight regimes. Generally design sensitivities were found to be configuration specific, since takeoff gross weight sensitivity to thrust margin and propulsion control provisions can vary among different types of propulsion systems. Mission sensitivities were less variant between airplanes designed for similar missions. Design sensitivities to hover control power were by far the most significant to V/STOL design, and support a high priority need for satisfactory VTOL control power criteria.
V/Stol Aircraft Design Sensitivity to Flying Qualities Criteria
1980
200 pages
Report
No indication
English
Aircraft , Aeronautics , Flight envelope , Aerodynamic characteristics , Vertical takeoff aircraft , Short takeoff aircraft , Hovering , Attitude control systems , Pitch(Motion) , Flight speeds , Supersonic flight , Subsonic flight , Lift , Roll , Experimental design , Computerized simulation , Jet aircraft , Jet propulsion , Thrust vector control systems , Aerodynamic stability