Identification of Aerodynamic Coupling During Vertical Takeoff and Landing of Tilt-rotor Aircraft

The aerodynamic coupling between the rotor, wing, and ground is highly complex during the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) process of a tilt-rotor aircraft, which severely affects flight stability. In this paper, a novel multi-input single-output feature model considering phase lag is first proposed to characterize the aerodynamic coupling mechanism during vertical takeoff and landing of the tilt-rotor aircraft. Based on that, a complete identification scheme for the rotor/wing/ground coupling of the tilt-rotor aircraft is proposed to derive the coupling law. Model comparison and performance verification based on flight tests are conducted to verify the accuracy of the model. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method in identifying complex aerodynamic coupling during vertical takeoff and landing of the tilt-rotor aircraft.