VTOL Flight Control for Safety and Minimized Pilot Training - The Jury's In?

摘要

The F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has fielded, for the firsttime in aviation, a radical, unorthodox (and bitterly opposedby some), cockpit flight control methodology for poweredlift. Has this unconventional and controversial choice provento be the correct one? This paper summarizes the extensiveresearch that led to the selection, and the reasons for theadoption of the Unified Flight Control methodology for theF-35. The objections that were raised and the subsequentin-service results are analysed to assess whether theprogramme made the correct decision. With the aviationindustry currently developing multiple VTOL and eVTOLvehicles, flight safety and pilot training are even morecritical for civil VTOL vehicles than they are for the F-35.The applicability of Unified Flight Control to the new VTOLindustry is discussed.