Influences of aerodynamic layout of single main rotor helicopter on flight performance

To investigate flight performance of the signal main rotor helicopters with different aerodynamic configurations based on helicopter nonlinear flight dynamic model, trim calculation of main rotor required power in case of level flight, steady-climb and descent, and steady coordinated-turn under baseline aerodynamic layout were conducted. The flight performance indicators were calculated. The agreement between the computational results and the referenced data indicates that the model is feasible. The flight performance of UH-60A helicopter was calculated and analyzed with variable aerodynamic configuration parameters. The results show that, in the range of variation, main rotor position parameters have significant influence on both level flight and vertical flight performance, the decrement of rotor longitudinal distance can improve flight performance dramatically, tail rotor canted angel has major impact in hover and low speed, moving backward of the longitudinal position of horizontal tail is helpful to improve the maximum level flight velocity.