ROTORCRAFT DYNAMICS

ASSIGNMENT 1

Submitted by

Muhammad Abdullah Tahir

180101034

Submitted to

Dr. Jamshed Riaz

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad

24/10/21
Copyright © 2020

This document is jointly copyrighted by the author and the Institute of Space

Technology (IST). Both the author and IST can use, publish or reproduce this document

in any form. Under the copyright law no part of this document can be reproduced by

anyone, except copyright holders, without the permission of the author.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. ii

QUESTION 1.1 .........................................................................................................1

QUESTION 1.2 .........................................................................................................2

QUESTION 1.3 .........................................................................................................3

QUESTION 1.4 .........................................................................................................4

QUESTION 1.5 .........................................................................................................5

QUESTION 1.6 .........................................................................................................5

QUESTION 1.7 .........................................................................................................6

QUESTION 1.8 .........................................................................................................7

References ...................................................................................................................
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LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 1 Timeline of engines and power to weight ratios....................................................... 3

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QUESTION 1.1

The fundamental technological problems encountered that limited the development of

helicopters at early stage are listed as below:

• Lack of efficient rotors due to poor understanding of rotating-wing aeromechanics.

• Understanding the basic aerodynamics of vertical flight. Therefore, they were

guided by intuition rather than the science and had to face problems such as

unknown theoretical power value required to produce a fixed amount of lift.

• Lack of light-weight powerful engines.

• Structural components, transmission and engine was heavy as both involved heavy

materials such as cast iron and since materials like aluminum weren’t in use yet for

aviation purposes.

• The idea of the tail rotor didn’t come across the minds of the early experimenters

so to produce counter torque, coaxial or side by side configurations were attempted

but now since two main rotors had to be controlled it made the situation even more

difficult.

• Providing stability and properly controlling the machine was a tough job due to

unequal lift produced on advancing and retreating blades from relative wind.

• Severe problems of vibrations existed which caused mechanical failures in the rotor

and airframes due to insufficient understanding of dynamics and aerodynamic

behavior of rotating wings.

• Early helicopters lacked the capability to be recovered safely in an event of engine

failure. i.e., autorotation effect

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QUESTION 1.2

The development of light-weight powerful engines was the key enabling technology for

powered flight opposed to the ready supply of fuel. Engines are fundamental to any sort of

powered flight be it fixed wing or rotorcrafts. The success of helicopters was held up until

engine technology was refined enough to produce powerful and light weight engines.

Historical records show that significant progress in the development of helicopters came

only after engines of sufficient power to weight ratio had been developed. The figure below

shows the historical record of the relation of engine development with the development of

rotorcrafts. It can easily be seen that major progress in helicopter flight was achieved after

the development of turbo shaft engines whose power to weight ratio was high enough to

be suitable for aeronautical use.

Fig. 1: Timeline of engines and power to weight ratios

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Prior to 1870, the only engines available to be used on mechanical devices were steam

engines but these engines consisted of numerous parts and were extremely heavy. Many

attempts were made to utilize steam engines in aeronautical machines but in vain. Later,

advancements in gasoline powered internal combustions eliminated many parts and

simplified the power terrain reducing the weight and increasing the power enabling use in

aeronautical machines. At this point in history, gasoline was readily available and was

being used in automobiles. However, there was no substantial progress in the development

of the helicopter as a means of transportation other than a few short test flights of some

early quad rotor machines. The breakthrough point for helicopters was the introduction of

turboshaft engines. These engines were the key enabling technology that helped realize the

helicopters in their current state.

QUESTION 1.3

The advantages of a tandem helicopter over a conventional helicopter are listed as below:

• Tandem rotor systems have a larger center of gravity range while for conventional

helicopters there are very strict tight margins.

• The tandem rotor systems also have better longitudinal stability.

• Tandem rotor systems can hold more weight with shorter blades.

• Tandem rotor systems require less power to hover and achieve low speed flight.

• Tandem rotor systems don’t experience dissymmetry of lift phenomenon.

The potential merits of a coaxial helicopter over a tandem helicopter are listed as below:

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 • Coaxial helicopters tend to be more compact and have a smaller footprint on the

ground making it useful where landing and takeoff space is limited.

QUESTION 1.4

The physical design features that distinguish an autogiro from a helicopter are listed as

below:

• Autogiro mechanically simpler than a shaft driven helicopter as the engine drove

only the propellers.

• The helicopter rotor blades are powered while the rotor blade of the autogiro is

undriven/unpowered.

• For autogiro, no need to develop a separate mean of countering torque reaction due

to main rotor.

• Autogiro due to simplicity has reduced weight and reduced design, production, and

capital costs.

• For autogiro, starting the rotor and taxiing requires help from a team.

• Autogiro could not hover as the helicopters could.

• Autogiro give pilot better control with lower control forces.

• In turns of performance capabilities, autogiro come close to the helicopter.

• The rotor blade of the autogiro is designed to be tilted backwards so that air flows

from underneath into it after passing through the forward propeller.

In the years leading up to 1940 companies like the Weir Company were extensively

involved in the production of autogiro. Their production line up of the autogiro had W1 to

W4 designs. These designs 1 to 4 were mainly autogiro while W5 and W6 were helicopter

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designs. However, the break of WW2 ended all research and development in autogiro in

these companies. The British wanted to follow the American Sikorsky designs and

therefore all the focus then shifted from autogiro to helicopter. The US had an accelerated

technical lead in the helicopter technology which resulted in completely putting aside the

autogiro project and focus solely on helicopters.

QUESTION 1.5

The technical problems that delayed the civilian tilt rotor are:

• Increased mechanical complexity

• Expensive research and development

• Aeroelastic problems

• Unsteady air loads produced on the wing as it stalled during conversion flight.

• Pylon whirl flutter.

• Decreased hover performance due to short rotor blades.

The economic problems that delayed the civilian tilt rotor after it had been proposed are:

• Companies cancelled the tilt rotor / tilt wing programs due to failure of initial

testing.

• Companies even went bankrupt during this process.

QUESTION 1.6

A single rotor configuration for a true heavy lift helicopter would be considered impractical

for various reasons such as:

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 • Single rotor design would require a larger diameter rotor to provide the required

amount of thrust. Larger rotor would require a greater amount of torque to rotate

it. Inherently it would require greater counter torque to prevent the airframe form

yawing. This would lead to an increase in the size of the tail rotor which would

increase the weight of the tail rotor as well as the supporting structure. A greater

portion of the engine power would be utilized to operate the tail rotor.

• High number of large diameter blades will result in high profile drag. Large rotor

diameter can result in excessive drooping of the blades. The required length of

the blade would be simply unpractical, it would be impossible to maintain the

structural integrity of the rotor.

QUESTION 1.7

A helicopter where along with the main rotor shaft and blades, there are additional features

present on the helicopter such as additional thrust engines, propellers, and static lifting

surfaces is known as Compound Helicopter. It has more maximum speed as compared to

conventional helicopters. However, complexity and the increase in cost of production and

maintenance of the compound helicopter is the downside to this. Moreover, having extra

static lifting surfaces can also increase the download from the main rotor thus increasing

the power required in hover mode.

Lift compounding:

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Lift compounding is using static lifting surfaces to provide lift during high-speed flight.

This allows the main rotor to be unloaded from its lifting requirements helps to minimize

the net power requirements for flight increasing the endurance.

Thrust compounding:

Thrust compounding is using a propulsive device to assist main rotor in the production of

forward thrust. Allows the main rotor to be unloaded from its propulsive task.

QUESTION 1.8

In tilt rotor, hover mode is degraded because it cannot have as big rotors as proper

helicopters, therefore their hovering performance is affected badly. In forward flight mode

the max speeds are greater than a helicopter because of not having problems such as

retreating blade stall etc. which limit the max speed of a helicopter. Moreover, the transition

regime of a tilt-rotor’s flight is complex and caused all sorts of problems for the pilots in

terms of controllability. All sorts of aeroelastic problems arise in the rotors and the wings

during the conversion regime which can cause problems for the aircraft. Tilt rotors have

higher disk loadings which results in complexities in manufacturing rotor blades that can

withstand the forces and pressures. Moreover, tilt rotors have lower power loading than

traditional helicopters which means they give lesser thrust per horsepower making them

less efficient than helicopters. The amalgamation of all these points resulted in many

decades passing before a practical tiltrotor concept was brought to fruition.

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References

[1] Principles of Helicopter dynamics (2nd ed.) by Gordon Leishman

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter#Compound_helicopter

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_rotor

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_rotors

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandem_rotors

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