METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ESTIMATING AN AIRSPEED OF A ROTORCRAFT BY ANALYZING ITS ROTOR

摘要

A method and apparatus for estimating an airspeed of a rotorcraft by analyzing its rotor. The rotorcraft includes a fuselage and a main rotor that is equipped with a plurality of blades and that rotates about an axis of a hub of the rotor, and in which the free end or “tip” of each blade describes a path in the vicinity of a tip-path plane. The method makes it possible to determine said airspeed of the rotorcraft in a frame of reference united with the tip-path plane by solving a model of the rotor that puts a pitch angle of at least one blade relative to the tip-path plane into relation with the airspeed of the rotorcraft and with an auxiliary speed. The auxiliary speed may be an induced velocity of the air flowing through the rotor or else an axial airspeed at the upstream infinity of the rotorcraft.