Helicopter dynamic modeling and system development for flight simulation

The flight simulation system plays a significant role in training helicopter pilots because of these performances of economy, security, efficiency, reusability and high fidelity for development of new helicopter model and flight training. On basis of the blade element theory and Pitt-Peters dynamic inflow theory, the dynamic model of the blade coupling with flap-pitch-torsion was established by numerical integral method. Taking the parts of the body as unit, the dynamic model of the whole helicopter including rotor, fuselage, tail rotor, empennage, landing gear and engine was established. Based on nonlinear state equations, a hybrid genetic algorithm was proposed to efficiently solve the trimmed controls. We developed a helicopter real-time flight simulation system by object-oriented development language Visaul C++. By comparing the UH-60A helicopter simulation results with flight test data, the validity of the dynamic model, the effectiveness of the hybrid genetic algorithm and the practicability of the simulation system are verified.