Towards Establishing Flying Qualities Requirements for Maritime Unmanned Aircraft Systems

This paper describes the continuing development work being undertaken to establish Flying Qualities Requirements for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) that will be expected to operate in the Maritime Environment. A UAS Dynamics Model (UDM) has been developed to allow the rapid investigation of the aircraft dynamics required to conduct ship-deck launch and recovery operations. The process used to develop the UDM is described along with the method used to fix the UDM dynamics to ADS-33E-PRF style bandwidth criteria. Two turbulence model structures are described and a preliminary test of the model dynamics in the lateral axis is reported. The model has been initially configured to assess an SH-60B-class UAS operating from a Type 23 Frigate. These preliminary investigations show that the methods being pursued hold promise to achieve the project aims.