Rotary Wing

j2 Universal Tool-Kit in Rotary Wing Applications

Rotary modelling and simulation has often been left to a few specialised organisations to develop "black box" solutions for their customers.  This is no longer the case. The initial rotary wing solution was developed for the US Air National Guard in 2017. j2 Aircraft Dynamics developed an EC-145 and provided the j2 Universal Tool-Kit to the client to upgrade it to the militarised version UH-72A. This was developed to a Level-6 FTD standard.  The integration of a Blade Element Rotor Model (BERM) meant that the aircraft was able to maintain stability in hover, autorotation, and tail rotor failure characteristics without the need for specialist solution development. All this was achieved without any code being required by the simulator manufacturer.    

The use of j2 software and consulting in the creation of high fidelity rotary wing models able to meet the exacting standards for Level 6 and higher Simulation standards is proven and this has opened up a significant range of applications for design, analysis and simulation of any rotary platform.

The j2 Universal Tool-Kit when applied to the modelling of rotary aircraft is able to deliver fully compliant models that meet all the modelling and analysis requirements as well as successfully simulating the following spheres of operation:

  • Stability in Hover
  • Main and tail rotor failures
  • Auto rotation.
  • Engine and gearbox failures
  • Downwash effects
  • Downwash ingestion
  • Upwash

The high fidelity rotor model in the UH-72A simulators was also able to deliver key mission rehearsal capabilities e.g. slung loads, landing on uneven surfaces, landing on single skid into hillside or onto the edge of a building.

The overall capability of using j2 software in rotary modelling and analysis extends even further into Air Accident Investigations (j2AAI) where j2 already has a global reputation as an expert witness.

The ability of j2 software to directly integrate and use multiple external models of engines, gearboxes, flight control systems, BERM’s etc through the use of a series of powerful API’s within its portfolio provides a highly unique capability for rapid and on going evaluations and evolution of the systems mentioned above.

The j2 software is also uniquely able to apply the very same capability to multi rotor craft and is already supporting the rapid evolution of multi rotor PAV/eVTOL aircraft designs allowing accelerated evaluations of flight control systems, modelling and analysing the transition from hover to forward and reverse flight and being able to simulate and analyse the various failure modes and recovery options such aircraft will experience.