Design, Conduction and Evaluation of Piloted Simulation Mission Task Element Tests for Desired Behavior Validation of an eVTOL Flight Control System

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-3790.vid Simulation-based flight testing by pilots represents a cornerstone during the development of an eVTOL aircraft. The main objective is the verification of the flight control system, especially the assessment of the handling qualities and the human machine interface. For this purpose, Mission Task Elements (MTEs) can be used. The paper demonstrates how the method of MTE testing can be applied in the early (model-based) development process of a fly-by-wire control system for an eVTOL aircraft to validate its desired behavior. It further provides new MTE designs tailored specifically for eVTOL applications. The MTE tests are conducted and evaluated in both nominal conditions and atmospheric disturbances as well as for selected failure conditions.