Use of Pilot Models to Support Design, Analysis, and Certification of UAM Vehicles

There is a strong emerging market for advanced air mobility concepts based on electric vehicle platforms. The Vertical Flight Society is tracking the progress of these vehicle concepts via a web portal that currently features over 140 vectored thrust, 60 lift plus cruise configurations, and approximately 100 wingless multicopters. Many of these vehicles have flown as scaled proof of concepts, while several others are flying as full-scale prototypes. While many of the concepts are envisioned to fly in an autonomous mode, the vehicles that will be certified by the FAA initially will all likely have pilot/operators on-board. Furthermore, these mostly electric vertical takeoff and landing concepts (eVTOL) will also likely feature advanced flight control concepts with highly augmented response types and a variety of cockpit control concepts from conventional helicopter to conventional fixed wing to unified (i.e., the F-35 approach). Given the industry push, these vehicles are clearly coming, but is the public ready to accept this disruptive technology? Besides the noise factor, which is not addressed here, there are safety and comfort factors to consider as well as a pilot pool that is likely to have less training and experience then those flying in the commercial transport market. To this end, a team led by Systems Technology, Inc. is developing the UAM Pilot Assessment Software System (U-PASS) toolbox that utilizes a Task-Pilot-Vehicle (TPV) approach to assess safety in terms of handling qualities and comfort in terms of ride qualities. By the end of Phase II, a prototype U-PASS toolbox will be available to support the design, analysis, and certification of UAM. Further, U-PASS can be used to enhance NASArsquo;s FlightCODE (Flight dynamics and control modeling tool for COnceptual DEsign), an integrated collection of tools for the flight dynamics and control assessments of rotorcraft designs including eVTOL configurations.