A study has been undertaken to define hand-ling qualities criteria for V/STOL aircraft. With the current military requirements for helicopters and airplanes as a framework, modifications and additions were made for conversion to a preliminary set of V/STOL requirements using a broad background of flight experience and pilots' comments from VTOL and STOL aircraft, BLC (boundary-layer-control) equipped aircraft, variable stability aircraft, flight simulators and landing approach studies. The report contains a discussion of the reasoning behind and the sources of information leading to suggested requirements. The results of the study indicate that the majority of V/STOL requirements can be defined by modifications to the helicopter and/or airplane requirements by appropriate definition of reference speeds. Areas where a requirement is included but where the information is felt to be inadequate to establish a firm quantitative requirement include the following: Control power and damping relationships about all axes for various sizes and types of aircraft; control power, sensitivity, d-amping and response for height control; dynamic longitudinal and dynamic lateral- directional stability in the transition region, including emergency operation; hovering steadiness; acceleration and deceleration in transition; descent rates and flight-path angles in steep approaches, and thrust margin for approach.

A study has been undertaken to define hand-ling qualities criteria for V/STOL aircraft. With the current military requirements for helicopters and airplanes as a framework, modifications and additions were made for conversion to a preliminary set of V/STOL requirements using a broad background of flight experience and pilots' comments from VTOL and STOL aircraft, BLC (boundary-layer-control) equipped aircraft, variable stability aircraft, flight simulators and landing approach studies. The report contains a discussion of the reasoning behind and the sources of information leading to suggested requirements. The results of the study indicate that the majority of V/STOL requirements can be defined by modifications to the helicopter and/or airplane requirements by appropriate definition of reference speeds. Areas where a requirement is included but where the information is felt to be inadequate to establish a firm quantitative requirement include the following: Control power and damping relationships about all axes for various sizes and types of aircraft; control power, sensitivity, d-amping and response for height control; dynamic longitudinal and dynamic lateral- directional stability in the transition region, including emergency operation; hovering steadiness; acceleration and deceleration in transition; descent rates and flight-path angles in steep approaches, and thrust margin for approach.

The hover analysis considers pilot attitude and position control tasks in the presence of horizontal gusts. The effects of each of the stability derivatives on the difficulty of the control tasks and on the closed-loop gust responses are determined. It is clearly shown that the handling qualities studies of control sensitivity and angular damping must consider the influences of M sub u (or L sub v) and should include gust inputs. These conclusions are substantiated by previous variable-stability-helicopter experiments. The effects of vehicle size and geometry are investigated by several approaches. The key result of increasing size is found to be a reduction in M sub u and L sub v which can, in turn, lower the requirements for control power and damping. The handling qualities during transition of two vehicles, a tilt duct and a tilt wing, which were previously tested on a simulator are analyzed. It is shown that both trim control and perturbations about the trim conditions must be considered. In fact, part of the increased difficulty in landing transitions, in comparison with takeoff transitions, is due to more difficult trim control; the much more stringent position control requirements in landing are also a contributing factor.

This Research Technical Memorandum presents suggestions for a specification on flying and handling qualities requirements for subsonic V/STOL aircraft. In addition to including the ideas of many others, the authors have incorporated two basic suggestions: (1) the use of a pilot rating system (since the ultimate measures of handling qualities are determined by the pilot) and (2) the use of servo-analysis techniques and terms to define quantitative requirements. There are no statistical or quantitative data available to verify the stated requirements in some cases; however, the requirements are based on many different V/STOL research aircraft funded by the U.S. Army and flown by U.S. Army pilots. (Author).

"This report presents a series of discussions on selected topics related to the development of VTOL flying qualities criteria. The topics were chosen on the basis of their importance to flying qualities and the potential significance to the Air Force VTOL Integrated Flight Control System (VIFCS) program. The treatment given to the selected topics was aimed at identifying those areas that require further study and research within the scope of the VIFCS program. -- page iii.