This paper studies the rotor aeromechanics in descending flight using a nonlinear flexible multibody dynamic analysis code, DYMORE. A freewake model is included in DYMORE to improve the rotor wake modelling. The wind-tunnel test data of the Higher-harmonic Aeroacoustics Rotor Test (HART) II rotor, with and without higher harmonic pitch control (HHC), and the flight test data of the full-scale utility helicopter rotor in descent are used for the aeromechanics correlation at an advance ratio of 0·15. The blade-vortex interaction (BVI) airloads are reasonably predicted for both the HART II and utility helicopter rotors, although some BVI peaks are missed on the advancing sides for both the rotors. The flap deflections and elastic torsion deformations at the blade tip are fairly correlated against the measured data of the HART II rotor. The correlation of blade structural moments for both HART II and utility helicopter rotors are not as good as the lift predictions; however, a reasonable prediction is obtained for the utility helicopter rotor.

A diffusing S-duct aircraft intake system is computationally studied for the effects of inlet icing and wall heat transfer on engine face distortion. A Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) code with k -ω SST turbulence model is used to simulate the compressible viscous flow in the duct. The glaze ice accretion on the inlet lip is simulated as a fixed protrusion from NASA LEWICE3D code. The shape and size of the ice on the inlet lip are assumed to remain constant even in the case of the heated wall. The case of zero external heat transfer is modeled by the adiabatic wall boundary condition, and constant-wall temperature is used to simulate the heated wall effect. The freestream Mach number of 0·85 and glaze ice condition on the inlet lip produce massive flow separation at the lip and internal shock cell structure in the S-duct. The heated wall creates additional vorticity and thus increases the engine face distortion level. The area-averaged total pressure distortion at the engine face in a freestream Mach number of 0·85 is increased by ~7% in the heated wall case as compared to the adiabatic flow.

The flowfield around a supersonic projectile using a pin actuator control method has been predicted using computational fluid dynamics. It has been predicted using both viscous and inviscid methods for a number of positions. Both methods showed that an optimal longitudinal position exists. However, the inviscid model over-predicted the lateral acceleration due to the difference in shock formation around the pin between the two approaches. The optimal location was predicted independent of solver, however the higher-fidelity solver predicted lower achievable lateral accelerations. This is due to the viscous interactions caused by the pin. The effect of projectile orientation has shown that shielding the pin leads to reduced effectiveness due to the wake of the fin enveloping the pin. When the pin is exposed to onset flow, the forces achieved are increased. There is also an increase in the achievable forces and moments with increasing Mach number.

A flight simulator study has been carried out to evaluate the performance of modern flight control systems encountering curved wake vortices. During the decay process the shape of wake vortices alters significantly which has an influence on the encounter characteristics and thus on the encounter hazard. To analyse most realistic wake encounters, flow fields of matured vortices have been generated with large-eddy-simulations. These were used for the determination of induced force and moment histories during the encounter. The force and moment histories have been implemented into the equations of motions of a 6 DoF flight simulation. For the sake of comparison encounters have also been simulated with straight vortices as they were mostly used for many other investigations. The most important goal of the study was to analyse the difference between these ideally straight vortices and vortices with a more realistic shape regarding encounter acceptance. The simulator study was conducted in an A330 motion-based full-flight simulator with pilots-in-the-loop. The analysed scenario was a wake encounter during final approach. The encounter conditions corresponded to a heavy-behind-heavy situation for Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations. The aircraft was flown either manually (in normal law) or with autopilot engaged. Altogether 93 encounters have been simulated, 38 with straight and 55 encounters with curved vortices. For encounters under manual control the simulator study revealed a potential risk of pilot induced oscillations (PIO) during encounters with curved vortices. With autopilot engaged not even one encounter with curved vortices was classified to be unacceptable. Although significant aircraft response was experienced the autopilot never disengaged automatically in any encounter. Altogether about 12 percent of the encounters were not accepted by the pilots. This is indeed a significant number, especially as the analysed scenarios can be regarded to be realistic situations which can occur in reality even if the applicable separation distances are applied.

Accident rates for night sorties, by helicopters operating offshore, are estimated to be five times higher than for daytime. Recent attempts to redress this problem include new instrument descent procedures and changes to helideck lighting. However, there still remains a need for pilots to transition from automated flight to a manually flown night visual segment during the arrival, and three recent accidents have again highlighted the dangers of this phase. In order to explore what factors affect safety during night visual segments 33 semi-structured interviews were administered to pilots from a number of companies, and grounded theory was employed to analyse the narratives. From this, a template was developed representing pilots’ perceptions of factors affecting safety, and the relationships among factors were hypothetically mapped. Visual spatial disorientation figured as the main concern of participants, stemming from substandard pilot communication, loss of scanning skills during summer months, autopilot limitations, and the requirement to fly to too low meteorological minima. Concerted actions and further areas of research have been proposed to the different stakeholders involved in offshore nighttime operations, going beyond ongoing safety initiatives.