Dynamic Performance Investigation for Tilt-rotor Aircraft

The tiltrotor aircraft has the capability to extend its performance characteristics compared to the conventional helicopter. However, the performance features, namely the maximum flight duration and flight range, are determined by a series of factors, such as the nacelle angle, the aerodynamic interference, and the effect of the fuel consumption. In this article, a novel performance investigation method is put forward combining the flight dynamics model, the automatic differentiation arithmetic embedded inverse simulation method, and the fuel consumption model. Then, the maximum flight duration and range are calculated and analyzed. The results indicate that the maximum flight range of the example XV-15 tiltrotor is 837 km, and its maximum flight duration is 3.86 h, and both of the results occurs when the tiltrotor aircraft is in the airplane mode. Also, the fuel consumption is an influential aspect, and the control strategy should be altered across the flight to maintain the best performance. Lastly, the calculation efficiency of the method is validated, and the results show that the time-cost is lower than the real-time period, suggesting the real-time requirement is still satisfied.