INTEGRATED ROTOR-FLIGHT CONTROL-SYSTEM OPTIMIZATION WITH AEROELASTIC AND HANDLING QUALITIES CONSTRAINTS

The results are presented of a study concerning the integrated optimiz ation of rotor and flight control systems with simultaneous aeroelasti c and handling qualities constraints. A representative subset of the A DS-33C handling qualities specification is reformulated into inequalit y constraint form, A simplified design model is used, consisting of th ree rotor design variables and five control system design variables fo r each Eight condition. It is not possible to satisfy the entire set o f aeroelastic and handling qualities constraints using just the three rotor design parameters of this study, If the design is optimized for just one flight condition, optimizing simultaneously the rotor and the Eight control system leads to substantially better designs than by se quentially optimizing the rotor first and the flight control system ne xt, The designs obtained using the two optimization strategies are qui te different, confirming that rotor and flight control systems are str ongly coupled.