Watching Weight: Autorotation Insights for a winged Single Main Rotor (wSMR)

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Title

FORUM 2023 - Vertical Flight Society 79th Annual Forum and Technology Display

Abstract

A single main rotor helicopter with a wing is one proposed design for the U.S. Army Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Capability Set 1 (CS-1). The wing is intended to share lift and offload the main rotor, increasing the achievable speeds; however those features come with tradeoffs particularly in autorotation. This work studies single main rotor configurations in autorotation conditions using a range of approaches: simple analytical models, more complex medium-fidelity physics-based flight dynamics modeling, and also examination of flight test data. The analyses are then leveraged to examine the effects of adding a wing to a single main rotor configuration and the tradeoffs for autorotation versus nominal operating conditions. Overall the results show that adding a wing tends to increase the rate of descent for autorotation.

Funding Sponsor

East-West Center

Department

Research Foundation

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