LONGITUDINAL STABILITY AND CONTROL OF LARGE TILT-ROTOR AIRCRAFT

Tilt-rotor aircraft combine the advantages of helicopters (i.e. ability to take-off and land in confined spaces and to hover and loiter at low speed) with the high speed and economy of turbo-props. The paper reports on the modelling and longitudinal control of a large tilt-rotor aircraft. The aim is to improve the handling qualities, which are characterized by poor predictability due to pitch drop-back, and to suppress key structural loads.