Evaluation of Aeronautical Design Standard - 33 Using a UH-60A Black Hawk

Flight tests determine whether performance standards developed for scout and attack class rotorcraft can be applied to utility helicopters.

Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama

In 1982, the U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate (AFDD), then assigned under the U.S. Army Aviation Systems Command (AVSCOM), began development of a new handling qualities specification for military rotorcraft. This effort resulted in the U.S. Army's initial Aeronautical Design Standard-33 (ADS-33A), “Handling Qualities Requirements for Military Rotorcraft,” published in May 1987. It was initially applied to the RAH-66 Comanche Helicopter program, meaning the handling qualities requirements generally related more to scout and attack classes of rotorcraft. As more data became available and lessons learned emerged from using ADS-33A, refinements were implemented into ADS-33B and ADS-33C).

In 1990, ADS-33C was assessed using an AH-64A Apache by the U.S. Army's Airworthiness Qualification Test Directorate (AQTD) at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Testing was performed during the day and at night in the Degraded Visual Environment (DVE). The results of that test led to development of the next version of the specification, ADS-33D.