Helicopter Autorotation Control for Rapid Engine-Out Response
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current flight control systems for rotary wing aircraft are inadequate in automating the entry into autorotation following engine power loss, leading to inefficiencies in maintaining rotor speed and adjusting for optimal descent during emergency landings.
Innovation Solution
An automated autorotation system that detects engine power loss, analyzes sensed height and airspeed, and adjusts control surfaces to minimize rotor speed loss, using a flight control computer to communicate and implement these adjustments based on a height-velocity graph for optimized rotor energy management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If manual pilot action is used to detect engine failure and adjust control surfaces, then the pilot can respond to the emergency condition, but the response time is delayed and the adjustments may not be optimal due to human reaction time and varying flight conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-programs optimal control surface adjustments based on height-velocity graph data before an emergency occurs. When engine failure is detected, the flight control computer immediately executes the pre-determined adjustments without requiring pilot calculation or reaction time, thus resolving the contradiction between rapid response and proper adjustment quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical control system with an automated flight control computer that uses sensors and algorithms to detect engine failure and automatically adjust control surfaces. This substitution eliminates human reaction time delays while maintaining precise control adjustments based on real-time flight conditions.
2Productivity
If automated control surface adjustment is implemented, then the transition into autorotation is faster and more efficient, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flight control computer is designed to perform multiple functions: normal flight control, engine failure detection, autorotation management, and control surface adjustment. By making the system multi-functional, the patent avoids adding separate dedicated systems for each function, thus reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high transition efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses its own sensors and flight data to automatically detect engine failure and determine the appropriate control adjustments without requiring external input or complex external systems. The flight control computer self-manages the autorotation transition using integrated information, reducing the need for additional external devices and simplifying the overall system architecture.
3Reliability
If real-time analysis of height and airspeed is performed to determine optimal control surface position, then the rotor speed loss is minimized, but the computational requirements and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores optimal control surface positions for various height and airspeed conditions based on the height-velocity graph before flight. During an emergency, the flight control computer only needs to query these pre-computed values based on current sensor readings, rather than performing complex real-time calculations. This approach maintains reliable rotor speed control while minimizing computational power requirements during the critical autorotation transition.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of automating entry of an aircraft into autorotation includes detecting a loss of engine power, analyzing a sensed height and sensed airspeed of the aircraft, determining an adjusted position of one or more control surfaces of the aircraft in response to the sensed height and sensed airspeed, and automatically moving the one or more control surfaces to the adjusted position.