This paper provides a brief overview of how modelling and simulation has been used to inform preparations for First of Class Flight Trials (FOCFT) aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of the United Kingdom’s two new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, from the perspective of a collaborative research programme undertaken by industry and academia to develop high-fidelity simulations of the carrier’s ‘airwake’. Computer modelling of the unsteady air flow over the carrier, and of the aircraft flight dynamics, have been integrated into high-fidelity flight simulators at BAE Systems Warton, and at the University of Liverpool. The Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) carriers have primarily been designed to operate the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II multirole fighter aircraft and will also operate a range of rotary-wing assets. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been used to compute the time-varying air flow over and around the 280m long ship, along the F-35B landing approach path and up to 400m astern of the ship. The paper shows a selection of results from the full-scale CFD analysis, and the results from a small-scale experiment that was conducted to provide confidence in the validity of the computed airwakes. The QEC airwakes have been employed by BAE Systems in its fixed-wing flight simulator at Warton, where test pilots have conducted simulated deck landings for a variety of wind over deck conditions, so providing experience for F-35B test pilots and the ship’s Flying Control (FLYCO) crew ahead of FOCFT, which will be conducted later this year. Airwakes have also been implemented in the HELIFLIGHT-R flight simulator at the University of Liverpool, where helicopter landings to the QEC have been simulated using a generic medium-weight maritime-helicopter model. A selection of results from the helicopter flight simulator trials is presented in terms of the workload ratings reported by test pilots, and these are related to the characteristics of the computed airwake at the landing spots tested. The paper demonstrates how modelling and simulation can be used to reduce both the risk and cost of flight trials, by informing the FOCFT planning process, and by highlighting, in advance of the trials, which wind speed and azimuth combinations may require more focus.
This paper describes an investigation into the air flow over the flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth, the UK's new aircraft carrier, and how it could affect helicopter recovery. The twin islands on the starboard side of the ship mean that there will be turbulent air flow over the flight deck for starboard winds. The unsteady air flow over the ship was created using time-accurate Computational Fluid Dynamics for a 25kts wind coming from 25° off the starboard, i.e. a Green 25 wind over deck. As well as using the CFD results to show the expected mean velocity field and turbulence intensity over the flight deck, the time-varying velocity components have also been used to assess how the unsteady air flow will affect a helicopter by integrating the velocity components of the ship’s airwake with a flight dynamics model of a helicopter configured to represent a SH-60B Seahawk. The application of the helicopter flight dynamics model has been implemented in two different ways: first where the flight model is held stationary in the airwake to evaluate the unsteady aerodynamic loads imposed on the helicopter, and second where the airwake and the flight model are integrated into a piloted full-motion flight simulator to assess pilot workload during a series of deck landings. The results show how the turbulent air flow over the landing spots correlates with the predicted unsteady loads on the helicopter, and with the workload ratings awarded by a test pilot in the simulator.
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