Methods to Assess the Handling Qualities Requirements for Personal Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a methodology to assess the handling qualities requirements for Personal Aerial Vehicles (PAVs). It is anticipated that a PAV would be flown by a 'flight-naïve' pilot who has received less training than is typically received by today's general aviation private pilots. The methodology used to determine handling requirements for a PAV cannot therefore be based entirely on existing best practicethe use of highly experienced test pilots in a conventional handling assessment limits the degree to which results apply to the flight-naïve pilot. This paper describes an alternative set of methods based on both the subjective and objective analysis of performance and workload of flight-naïve pilots in typical PAV tasks. A highly reconfigurable generic flight dynamics simulation model that has been used to validate the methodology is also described. Results that highlight the efficacy of the various methods are presented and their suitability for use with flight naïve pilots demonstrated. Nomenclature  lat = Lateral stick input [-1:1]  lon = Longitudinal stick input [-1:1]  lon,gust = Longitudinal stick input component from gust [-1:1]  lon,pilot = Longitudinal stick input component from pilot [-1:1]  lon,total = Longitudinal stick input from gust and pilot combined [-1:1]  cmd = Commanded Bank Angle [rad]  lat = Roll Response Natural Frequency [rad/s]

Towards the development of a flight training programme for future personal aerial vehicle users

“…the manner in which the vehicle responds following a cockpit control input) were identified previously [12,13] that permitted 'flight-naïve' pilots (those with no/limited previous flight experience) to rapidly develop the skills required to operate a PAV simulation safely and repeatedly with a high degree of precision. This work showed that a vehicle with a translational rate command (TRC) response type (i.e.…”

“…The methods developed and used during the project can be found in Ref. [12]. For the four participants who possessed no real or simulated previous flying experience and hence had no pre-existing directly relevant knowledge, it can be considered that these participants started the training programme from an equivalent level of pilotage knowledge.…”

“…Using this description as a basis, a list of manoeuvres that would need to be performed by a PAV pilot was developed. These were used to identify the skills that the PAV pilot would need to demonstrate for manual flight, based on the ideal PAV response characteristics identified in the earlier myCopter research [12,13].…”

“…An interesting parallel can be drawn with autonomous car technologies currently being introduced by the likes of Tesla. 12 Here, the cars are delivered with 'full self-driving' hardware and 'autopilot' software can be downloaded onto it. The driver is supposed to maintain their hands on the steering wheel and monitor their surroundings in order that they can take back manual control if required.…”

“…This previous work adopted the HQ approach of Ref. [14] which uses mission task elements (MTEs) to assess the pilot-vehicle HQs whilst performing specific tasks that form a subset of the tasks that might have to be performed during a flight [12].…”