A Flight Investigation of Control, Display, and Guidance Requirements for Decelerating Descending VTOL Instrument Transitions Using the X-22A Variable Stability Aircraft. Volume 2. Background Information and Supporting Data

The third flight research program using the variable stability X-22A was undertaken to investigate control, display, and guidance requirements for VTOL instrument transitions. The primary purpose of the experiment was to provide meaningful data related to the interaction of aircraft control system and displayed information characteristics on pilot rating and performance during a steep decelerating descending transition from a representative forward velocity (100 Kt) to the hover completely under instrument conditions. Thirty- eight in-flight evaluations were performed of combinations of five generic display presentations, ranging from position-information-only to four-axis control directors, and five levels of control augmentation systems, ranging from rate-augmentation-only to decoupled longitudinal and vertical velocity responses and automatic configuration changes.