Methods to Assess the Handling Qualities Requirements for Personal Aerial Vehicles

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Abstract
This paper describes the development of a methodology to assess the handling qualities requirements for vertical takeoff and landing-capable personal aerial vehicles. It is anticipated that such a personal aerial vehicle would be flown by a “flight-naïve” pilot who has received much less training than is typically received even by today’s general aviation private pilots. The methodology used to determine handling requirements for a personal aerial vehicle cannot therefore be based entirely on existing best practice; the use of highly experienced test pilots in a conventional handling assessment limits the degree to which results apply to the flight-naïve pilot. Using rotary-wing handling qualities methods as a start point, this paper describes both existing and newly developed alternative methods to subjectively and objectively analyze the performance and workload of flight-naïve pilots in typical personal aerial vehicle 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 used are presented, and their suitability for use with flight-naïve pilots demonstrated.

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