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Why not, by the way? Why don't helicopters have a simple control input system these days, that can be interpreted by a computer and applied to actual flight con
by Pyxl101 10y ago
Why not, by the way? Why don't helicopters have a simple control input system these days, that can be interpreted by a computer and applied to actual flight controls?
I'm imagining a helicopter with the same controls as a current one, but where the "balancing" act is done by computer. It's stable by default, and the human inputs controls to ascend, descend, rotate, or tilt in the desired direction. So a human could take their hands off the controls in a stationary helicopter and it would stay stationary. If the human wants to fly forward, they push the cyclic stick forward, and that's it, no need to compensate in the other controls.
Is this just not done because fly-by-wire would make helicopters even more expensive or less reliable? Are there any fly-by-wire helicopters today?
After writing this question I decided to do some web searches and came across http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/23977/why-not-simplified-fly-by-wire-helicopter-controls http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/23977/why-not-si... and a Wired article about a fly-by-wire helicopter: https://www.wired.com/2012/02/electrons-dominate-new-sixteen-passenger-bell-helicopter/ https://www.wired.com/2012/02/electrons-dominate-new-sixteen...
I'm looking for a description of what it's like to fly from a pilot. Haven't turned up anything yet.
- jackhack 10y agoModern multi-blade drones do this very thing : attitude, altitude and heading hold. They are incredibly stable, and even have a "return home" feature, obstacle avoidance, and more. Very sophisticated. Could this be adapted to a full-size craft? Possibly, but that's a serious engineering task that would involve a lot of development and testing. For that reason, I think it is exceeding unlikely to think a 78 year old man, ill with cancer, would invent and equip a 3-axis fly-by-wire guidance control/autopilot system for a helicopter so he could rappel down and hide a treasure while a helicopter hovered overhead. Then after securing the treasure, he would presumably climb the rope to re-enter the craft, disable the attitude hold then fly away. This sort of thing is best left to the James Bond films.
- elif 10y agoseems relevant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3xcj-pTjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3xcj-pTjg
- hexane360 10y agohttps://youtu.be/eXR1olg_I0w https://youtu.be/eXR1olg_I0w Here's a pretty good one. It appears to be constant 3-axis compensation, although he alludes to newer helicopters that have made it much easier.
- achamayou 10y agoThe NH90 uses fly by wire controls, and the Bell 525 whenever it gets certified will be the first civilian helicopter with fly by wire controls.