Rotorcraft Stability and Control: Past, Present, and Future The 20th Annual Alexander A. Nikolsky Lecture

摘要

This paper has attempted to highlight some of the many contributions over the past 75 years to the understanding of the stability and control characteristics of helicopters. What about the future? As noted by Bart Kelley in his Nikolsky Lecture, predicting the future is likely to be an embarrassing occupation, so I will leave those details to others. I will pose a couple of questions. 1) We are in a technological age where it is possible to achieve great many things in the area of flight controls, and automated flight. With advances in electronics and computation it seems that given enough money and time, nearly anything can be done in the way of stabilization and control of rotorcraft. What should be done? 2) An interesting fundamental question related to the future development of helicopter flight control systems, since they play an essential role is: What limitations are placed on the design of flight control systems for a rotorcraft by its configuration and main rotor design? Continued development of advances in the ability to model the craft accurately is a desirable objective for the future, necessary for good inherent flying qualities, and cost effective, efficient, design and development of automatic control systems. In closing, I would like to recognize all of the many students I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with over the years, and to acknowledge all that I have learned from them.