Handling Qualities Through a Virtual Engineering Lens

摘要

Handling Qualities are expressed as requirements at the interface of the pilot and the machine. In this way, the keyrnfunctionality questions facing the design engineer are seen from the perspective of the interaction of the human pilot with the aircraftrnsystem and the environment in which it operates. In this paper, the author takes a ‘virtual engineering’ approach to handlingrnqualities, emphasising the importance of conducting ‘requirements capture’ and preliminary design as an iterative process. Whenrnstretched capabilities are required, this approach minimises the risk to finding appropriate technology solutions, through developingrnexplicit relationships between capability and design parameters, thus facilitating fully informed trade studies and predictions. Casernstudies from the development of a civil tilt rotor aircraft are presented that show how the difficult challenges facing the designer firstrnneed to be structured in terms of HQ predictions and assignments. This then provides the basis on which handling qualitiesrnimprovements can be constructed within the multidisciplinary context of rotorcraft engineering.