transitioning
I'm a taken chief of the rotorcraft
empowered lift branch at NASA Ames
Research Center my branch is responsible
for the development of a new research
aircraft that aims known as a v/stol
systems research aircraft or v sra it's
whole purpose in being is to is to
demonstrate aims develop technology in
both the flight control and cockpit
systems for a new breed of advanced
short takeoff and vertical landing
aircraft we're currently beginning a
series of demonstration flights for both
visiting military and industry test
pilots to expose them to the technology
being developed at Ames specifically the
flight control system control modes and
the head-up display formats that are
being developed to help extend the
operational capability of this type of
aircraft as well as to improve the
safety of flight what we have done is to
implement a programmable fly-by-wire
flight control system on the aircraft on
the VSR a together with a head-up
display with a programmable set of
symbology which will allow us to expose
these visiting pilots to this to a wide
spectrum of possibilities and control
modes that have been developed at Ames
using the ground simulation facilities
the intention then is to perform
evaluation flights formal evaluation
flights using these visiting test pilots
and simulating a situation where they
are making a an approach and landing to
a small ship at sea or to a confined
area on land in the great weather
conditions in poor weather conditions
poor visibility conditions and for the
shipboard situation a very high sea
State this is a is a particularly
difficult area for this type of error
craft because as the aircraft as this
short takeoff and vertical landing
aircraft slows down it depends more and
more on the propulsion system for its
own stability and control and less and
less on the aerodynamics of the of the
vehicle the the detail design of the
propulsion system is extremely important
and the way it affects the pilots
ability to control the aircraft so we've
developed systems that are appropriate
for this type of aircraft and display
formats which allow the pilot to have
basically a status at a glance when
looking out the looking out the window
at a at a dark and stormy night he has
some symbology sitting in front of his
eyes that will help him perform the task
that we've defined we are our primary
role here at Ames is to generate the
design criteria for these integrated
flight and propulsion control systems
for the short takeoff and vertical
landing aircraft and the technique that
we use to generate credible criteria is
to use to employ flight validation of
those of those criteria specifically the
formal evaluations in the v/stol systems
research aircraft we intend to have
pilots from the marine corps major
aerospace companies and and also
visiting pilots from the united kingdom
who fly that who fly the harrier and
that will be done through the end of
this calendar year through december and
upon completion of that flight program a
final report will be put together
documenting the results of the
demonstration flights