Towards Handling Qualities Evaluations of a Personal Aerial Vehicle in Ground-Based and In-Flight Simulation

Abstract

This paper reports results from a study, conducted in a fixed-base helicopter simulator, to investigate the handling qualities of possible future Personal Aerial Vehicles (PAV) that are supposed to have VTOL capabilities like helicopters. A PAV simulation developed in the European project myCopter is used as baseline configuration. In preparation for actual flight tests on DLR’s in-flight simulator ACT/FHS an adapted version of the baseline configuration has been integrated into the model-based control environment of the ACT/FHS and evaluated on the ground-based ACT/FHS simulator. The results indicate acceptable to good model following. Finally, a third configuration with a novel steering wheel control concept is evaluated. The steering wheel replaces the conventional center stick. The other control axes are also redefined to resemble a carlike control concept for rotorcraft. The participating pilots gave better usability ratings for the conventional inceptor arrangement. Nevertheless, the detailed pilot ratings show that when the steering wheel is used the overall handling qualities can be improved while the subjective workload is reduced.