Experimental Research on the Helicopter Sliding Stability after Ditching

Abstract

As the application of the helicopter increases rapidly, more and more attention is paid to the safety. Thus the survivability and crashworthiness has been an important assessment items for the helicopter design and flight certification. In this paper, a newly designed ditching experiment with a helicopter model scaled 1:8 was conducted to attain the dynamic response of loads and especially the posture. Parameters such as weight, bladder pressure, lateral wind and ditching velocity were set in different groups to investigate the effect on the sliding stability. Based on the result, comparison and analysis was carried out and some conclusions were given. Meanwhile, the method and process of the experiment was presented in detail and proved an effective and available reference for the helicopter flight certification.