Thomson, D.G. and Houston, S. (2008) Advances in understanding autogyro flight dynamics. In: 64th American Helicopter Society Annual Forum, April 29 – May 1, 2008, Montreal, Canada. http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/4962/ Deposited on: 01 April 2009 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk Advances in the Understanding of Autogyro Flight Dynamics Dr Douglas Thomson Senior Lecturer e-mail: [email protected] Dr Stewart Houston Senior Lecturer e-mail: [email protected] Department of Aerospace Engineering University of Glasgow Glasgow, UK G12 8QQ Abstract de la Cierva's solution of installing flap hinges to accommodate non-symmetric lift from the rotor blades. The A comprehensive flight dynamics study of the development of the autogyro receded as the helicopter autogyro is presented in this paper. A state of the art generic became more popular and successful. In recent years simulation of the vehicle type was developed and validated however there has been a resurgence of interest in this type against flight data. This validation is presented in the paper of aircraft both as a recreational aircraft and as a low cost and it is shown that the model can be applied to the autogyro alternative to the helicopter with companies such as Groen with some confidence within well defined limitations and Cartercopter both seeking to market autogyro bounds. It is also shown that the general stability configurations to commercial and military operators. The characteristics of the autogyro can be considered as a mix of autogyro has become a very popular vehicle for hobby helicopter and fixed wing aircraft modes of flight. Most flying, possibly due to its flying characteristics but also as significantly the autogyro has a lightly damped, high they are often purchased in kit form giving the owner the frequency phugoid mode. Further, it is demonstrated that opportunity to build and fly his own aircraft. the only significant configurational effect is related to the relative vertical position of the centre of gravity with respect This resurgence in interest by private flyers has also to the propeller thrustline, a centre of gravity which lies led to closer scrutiny by regulatory authorities. In particular, above the thrustline being more desirable. Results from in the UK in the early 1990’s the Civil Aviation Authority’s preliminary handling qualities trials applying the techniques attention was drawn to autogyro’s after a series of accidents of ADS33 to an autogyro are also presented. Results from between 1989 and 1991 which gave statistics of 6 fatalities flight trials to investigate the teetering motion of the rotor per 1000 hours of flying time. Given that there were less are described, and the influence of the research on air than 100 aircraft of this type registered in the UK this was accident investigation is also discussed. constituted a serious problem. Recent statistics show some improvement, Figure 1, [2], however it is clear that there is still a problem with this aircraft type. Introduction Investigation of these accidents was hindered by a The emergence of the autogyro aircraft in the 1920's lack of contemporary published research into this vehicle, and '30's paved the way for the development of the particularly in its aerodynamic characteristics and its flight helicopter in the 1940's [1]. Many of the technical problems dynamics and flying qualities. This led the UK Civil associated with rotary wing flight had been discovered and Aviation Authority (CAA) to fund research in these areas to rectified by the early autogyro pioneers most notably Juan support a major review of the British Civil Airworthiness ________________ Requirements for autogyros (BCAR Section T) [3]. The aim Presented at the American Helicopter Society 64th Annual Forum, is to improve the design standard of autogyros in the UK Montreal, Canada, April 29 – May 1, 2008. Copyright © 2008 by and so improve their safety. The University of Glasgow has the American Helicopter Society International, Inc. All rights been supporting the CAA in this activity in a number of reserved. ways including wind tunnel testing of an autogyro model, flight testing of 2 aircraft types and development of which had occurred were related to owners modifying their comprehensive simulation models. The aim of this paper is aircraft by changing aerodynamic surfaces, pod or tailplane, to review the research carried out on autogyros in the area of for example. The question was just how much were the flight dynamics by Glasgow researchers. forces and moments on the aircraft influenced by such adjustments. The wind tunnel testing therefore included cases with the pod removed, tailplane removed etc to allow 6 fatal accidents comparisons to be made. The effect of propeller wash was 6 reportable fatal accidents accidents reportable accidents also established by conducting tests with power on and 5 5 power off. 4 4 3 The model used in this study was a powered, one- 3 third scale model of a VPM-M14 gyroplane minus rotor, 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Figure 2. It is normal, in rotorcraft testing, to carry out wind 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 tunnel tests without the rotor since scaling considerations of 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 a combined rotor-fuselage configuration would require the 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 use of a very large test facility and would be prohibitively expensive. Note that a representation of the pilot is included as it is likely to be significant for a vehicle of this size. The tests were conducted in the 3m Low Speed Wind Tunnel of 109 the Aeronautical Research and Test Institute (VZLU) of 109 average rate of fatal accidents peraverage million rate hours of fatal flown accidents 1992-2001 Prague in the Czech Republic. The particular wind tunnel per million hours flown 1992-2001 used in this study is an atmospheric open-section, closed return, Gottigen style tunnel with a maximum velocity of around 60m/s. Forces and moments were measured on a six 36.1 36.1 component fully-automatic overhead gravitational balance which is accurate to between 0.01% and 0.05% full scale. The tests were conducted at representative advance ratio and gyroplanes airline aeroplanes airline aeroplanes public transport gyroplanes airline aeroplanes airline aeroplanes public transport (<5700 kg) (>5700 kg) helicopters propeller thrust coefficients however the Reynolds number (<5700 kg) (>5700 kg) helicopters (2.5 ×106) is 40% of the full vehicle value at cruise. It is unlikely that the reduced Reynolds number of the tests Figure 1: UK Autogyro Safety Statistics in Comparison would produce any significant differences between the with other Aircraft Types measured force and moment coefficients and those experienced by the full-scale aircraft. This is primarily One of the most notable outcomes of the research was because the basic gyroplane structure is non-streamlined the first comprehensive study of the aerodynamics of an and, consequently, insensitive to Reynolds number changes. autogyro configuration [4], and this research is summarised in the following section of this paper. More significantly much more is now understood about the flight dynamic characteristics of this configuration [5-8], and the rest of this paper is devoted to this work. Experiments aimed at studying the teeter motion of an autogyro rotor are also presented along with some preliminary studies into the application of ADS 33 to autogyro handling qualities assessment. The original impetus for this research was an unacceptable accident rate, and the last section of this paper discusses the impact the research has had on autogyro accident investigation in the U.K. The Aerodynamic Properties of Autogyros There were two main aims in undertaking wind tunnel tests of an autogyro configuration. Firstly there was no known data for this type of vehicle and it was essential to have appropriate information to ensure that the flight Figure 2: Wind Tunnel Model mechanics simulations were as accurate as possible. (Rotor for display purposes only) Secondly, there was evidence that some of the accidents A full analysis of the test results is given by Coton et of angle of attack and sideslip, also derived from 2-D lookup al in reference 4, here only some of the more pertinent tables which were constructed from the wind tunnel data conclusions are discussed. The aerodynamic characteristics collected in the tests described above. Depending on the of the gyroplane configurations considered in this study are number of blades on each rotor, there can be up to 100 generally benign. It is, however, pertinent to note that there nonlinear, periodic ordinary differential equations describing are several effects associated with the cowling which are the coupled rotor/airframe behavior. A simple model of the detrimental to stability. Although the cowling on the VPM- International Standard Atmosphere is used, with provision M14 is particularly large, it is likely that any 'open' cowling for variation in sea level temperature and pressure. design will be subject to similar effects in the longitudinal mode. Additionally, the length of the VPM cowling is The model is therefore a very conventional substantial; extending from well in front of the pilot up to the individual blade/blade element representation of a generic rotor support column. The increased wetted area which this two-rotor aircraft. The rotor module is called twice in the presents to the onset flow in sideslip acts to oppose the simulation code, each rotor being discriminated by data that stabilising effect of the tail. The tail of this aircraft benefits specifies its location and orientation on the airframe, and its from the additional sideforce produced by the endplates on characteristics in terms of blade mass distribution, hinge the horizontal surfaces.