Flight Test Assessment of the Break Turn and High-Speed Acceleration/Deceleration Mission Task Elements using a UH-60M Black Hawk

Since it was first adopted in 1987, Aeronautical Design Standard ADS-33 has been through four major revisions, and the Mission Task Elements (MTEs) used to qualitatively assess aircraft handling qualities have been expanded to cover scout, attack, utility, and cargo missions. However, even the current version of ADS-33 (ADS-33E-PRF) focuses on the hover/low-speed flight regime with limited coverage of high speed (140-150 kts) and conventional rotorcraft configurations. The ADS-33E MTEs are based on legacy vehicles and were developed at an early stage of rotorcraft fly-by-wire technology. The U.S. Army National Rotorcraft Technology Center recently completed a multi-year project to develop MTEs for future high-speed configurations and missions using a series of simulation studies. This paper documents a flight test assessment of two high-speed MTEs—Break Turn and High-Speed Acceleration/Deceleration—using a UH-60M Black Hawk. The MTEs were deemed suitable for assessing high speed handling qualities of the UH-60M. The results of the flight test provided recommended updates to the task descriptions and course cueing requirements, and helped validate the desired and adequate task performance tolerance.