Low-Cost Lightweight Attitude-Command Augmentation System for Civil Helicopters

This project will result in a low-cost, lightweight, attitude-command-attitude-hold (ACAH) stabilization system for civil helicopters. The results of past and ongoing U.S. Army and NASA research will be used as a starting point to develop an ACAH stability augmentation system (SAS) that can be used to enhance the dynamics of civil helicopters in a way that is economically viable to the user.The helicopter dynamics required to achieve safe IFR capability are not well understood, so that each certification is a high-risk (and therefore expensive) effort. An important feature of the proposed SAS it that it will provide handling qualities and divided attention characteristics that can be depended on to meet the FAA requirements for IFR certification. The proposed ACAH SAS would provide a low cost solution to achieve improved helicopter dynamics, and hence enhanced safety, in two critical flight regimes, the DVE and for IMC. There is substantial evidence from NTSB accident data to indicate that it is safer to operate IFR than to attempt to continue visual flight in low visibility conditions. However, if it is necessary to operate in the DVE, the ACAH SAS can be shown to substantially improve the safety of that operation