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Several hover control and display concepts were evaluated in flight on a variable-stability helicopter. The control and display concepts enable precise hover maneuvers, station keeping, and vertical shipboard landings in zero-visibility conditions and until now have been evaluated only in piloted simulations. A new display design method is presented that attempts to attain the same pilot-vehicle performance regardless of the level of control augmentation. The display design method was first examined analytically with the control dynamics in the context of the pilot's desired guidance strategy. Then, while fully hooded, three pilots performed landing-pad captures followed by vertical landings with attitude-rate-command/attitude-hold, attitude-command/attitudehold, and translational-velocity-command control systems. Of the 28 piloted blind landings, 25 were within 5 ft and 14 were within 2 ft of the specified touchdown point.

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