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This is fascinating, and exactly the kind of research that one would expect from Airbus, which created the first digital fly-by-wire airliner back in the 1980s.

This is fascinating, and exactly the kind of research that one would expect from Airbus, which created the first digital fly-by-wire airliner back in the 1980s. Does anyone have a video of this system in operation? The first question that comes to mind for me is whether this new control system takes into account the ground effect, that is, can it hover safely at just a few feet off the ground? This is one of the earliest things taught in a helicopter piloting course and is apparently extremely difficult. It's already the case that the rotor in a helicopter spins at a consistent rate, where the governor system automatically manipulates the power of the turbine for the pilot; the article doesn't mention that without it you'd have yet another control to manage! This kind of automation should be pretty useful in reducing the pilot's workload in much the same way that the governor does today.

lsaferite 3y ago
> It's already the case that the rotor in a helicopter spins at a consistent rate, where the governor system automatically manipulates the power of the turbine for the pilot; the article doesn't mention that without it you'd have yet another control to manage! Is that different than having throttle control on the collective? From the Article: > If that isn't enough, there's also a throttle on the Collective Control to ensure that the engine power matches the blade pitch
- gavinhoward 3y ago
  Former helicopter student pilot. Yes and no. The throttle still exists; the governor just handles it for you, except in the VERY unlikely event that it fails. You still need to train how to handle the throttle yourself for that case, but governors are not known to fail often. But in normal flight, you keep your hand off the part of the collective with the throttle because the governor is directly manipulating it. It's like the cruise control in your car, actually, and you can actually turn the governor off by preventing it from turning the throttle, in which case, it disconnects and hands full control to you.

lsaferite 3y ago

> It's already the case that the rotor in a helicopter spins at a consistent rate, where the governor system automatically manipulates the power of the turbine for the pilot; the article doesn't mention that without it you'd have yet another control to manage! Is that different than having throttle control on the collective? From the Article: > If that isn't enough, there's also a throttle on the Collective Control to ensure that the engine power matches the blade pitch

gavinhoward 3y ago
Former helicopter student pilot. Yes and no. The throttle still exists; the governor just handles it for you, except in the VERY unlikely event that it fails. You still need to train how to handle the throttle yourself for that case, but governors are not known to fail often. But in normal flight, you keep your hand off the part of the collective with the throttle because the governor is directly manipulating it. It's like the cruise control in your car, actually, and you can actually turn the governor off by preventing it from turning the throttle, in which case, it disconnects and hands full control to you.