Helicopter Flight Dynamics, 3rd Edition

9Flying Qualities: The Story of an Idea

The author in the cockpit of the experimental, fly‐by‐wire Apache AV05, after his second test flight over the Arizona desert in October 1989. Lt. Col. Wally Steward, standing on the left, was the UK Army Air Corps test pilot evaluating the flying qualities of this aircraft. Wally accompanied the author on this trip to examine the advanced control technology of this aircraft, as part of the development of requirements for a future UK attack helicopter. McDonnell Douglas test pilot Channing Morse, standing on the right, was safety pilot on our four flights with this aircraft

(photo McDonnell Douglas, now Boeing Helicopters)

I believe that we at a point where designers have, within their grasp, the performance standards, criteria and test techniques, the understanding of rotorcraft aeromechanics and control and the design tools to ensure that handling deficiencies should never again have to define the boundary of the operational flight envelope.

(the author's Introduction to the 32nd Alexander A. Nikolsky Honorary Lecture, Ft. Worth, TX, May 2012, Ref. 9.1)

9.1 Introduction and Scope

During the first few years of the twentieth century, the Wright brothers had carefully and thoroughly documented developments with their 1901–1902 gliders and their 1903–1905 powered aircraft (Ref. 9.2). In contrast, no such recordings are available, to this ...