Designers of tilt rotor aircraft always adopt the conventional configuration which has became a comparatively mature design through years of investigation and development However, the conventional configuration has some inherent disadvantages of flying quality, flight safety and performance. In order to solve these problems, a new tilt rotor aircraft conceptual design with a tail propeller is presented. The small scale unmanned prototype aircraft has been developed to demonstrate the feasibility of this conceptual design. The flight dynamics model is established based on multi-body dynamics equations in which the unsteady flap equations and dynamic inflow model are adopted for rotor blades' dynamics study and aerodynamic loads prediction. However, quasi-steady assumption of rotor blades is suitable for trim study and building the conversion corridor. Optimization of short takeoff performance is realized though combining the genetic algorithm and simulation model. In addition, open loop and altitude-hold transition flight is simulated. Flight dynamics study and flight test both prove that the slipstream effect and thrust due to tail propeller improve the flight performance, safety, stability and maneuverability of tilt rotor aircraft.
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