Vertical control system for rotary wing aircraft

• Main Authors: POST; JOSEPH A, STILES; LORREN, GOLD; PHILLIP J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 27.06.1995
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: CONTROLLING; PHYSICS; REGULATING; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES

A vertical control system for a rotary winged aircraft receives inputs from a displacement collective stick and a sidearm controller. The system provides a set point for the vertical rate of change of the helicopter as a function of a vertical lift command signal from the sidearm controller. The set point is used as a reference for an altitude rate of change feedback path, and an integrated value of the set point is used for an altitude feedback path. The set point is also input to a feedforward control path having an inverse vehicle model to provide a command signal indicative of the command for aircraft collective pitch necessary to achieve the desired set point. Signals from all three paths (i.e., the altitude rate of change feedback path, the altitude feedback path, and the feedforward path) are summed to provide a signal to backdrive the displacement collective which controls main rotor collective pitch.