MODULE CODE: 3223

ROTORCRAFT AEROMECHANICS

Lecture by:
Wing Commander Niroshan Kiriwella
MSc. Tech (SPPU–Ind), PG Dip Mgt (KDU), BSc. Aero Eng (KDU), MRAeS (UK), AMIE (SL), A.Eng (ECSL), AMCMET (SL), ptsc (Ind)
 LESSON 06

Helicopter Performance

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 HELICOPTER PERFORMANCE
 Dependent on;
 Power output of the engine and
 Lift produced by the rotors
 Three major factors that affect performance are;
 Density altitude
 Weight
 Wind
 Ways to measure helicopter performance;
 Top speed
 Range
 Acceleration
 Hover ceiling
 Loiter time

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 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Hover Ceiling
 Maximum altitude at which a
helicopter can hover
 At higher altitudes air is less
dense which makes both the
rotor and engine less efficient
 More power is required by the
rotor and less power is
available from the engine(s)
 A chart may be used to specify
the hover ceiling

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 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Hover Ceiling
 Chart shows the maximum pressure
altitude that a helicopter can hover as a
function of weight and temperature
 Air density is the important value
governing hover ceiling, but pressure
altitude and temperature are more
readily available
 Together these two values mostly
determine the density
 Charts typically use weight on the
horizontal axis and pressure altitude on
the vertical axis, as shown
 Notice separate lines in the chart for
each temperature
 Higher temperatures correspond to
lower air density and therefore lower
pressure altitude 5
 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Hover Ceiling
 Ceiling is out of ground effect (OGE),
meaning it's well above the ground
 When a helicopter is near the ground
the rotor is more efficient and can
hover at lower air density (higher
pressure attitude)
 For this reason, two charts are
provided: one for in ground effect
(IGE) and another for out of ground
effect (OGE)
 This ceiling is at maximum
continuous power (MCP)
 Most helicopters can use more
power than MCP, as long as this
power is limited to a short time
period
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 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Figure of Merit
 Figure of merit is used to evaluate the hover efficiency
of a rotor
 Defined as the ratio of ideal power (according
to momentum theory) to the actual power consumed in
hover
 Hence, a rotor with a figure of merit (FM) of 1 would
be “perfectly efficient.”
 Real rotors, with a finite number of blades, non-
uniform inflow, tip losses, drag, etc., typically have FM
below 0.8
 Less efficient rotors consume more power
(denominator) with the same ideal power (numerator)
and hence have smaller figures of merit (FM) 7
 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Figure of Merit
 Ideal Power according to Momentum Theory
Ideal Power =

T = Thrust
ρ = Air density
A = Area of Rotor

 Therefore, Figure of Merit

P = Actual Power consumed by rotor 8

 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Figure of Merit
 A helicopter with low FM is not necessarily bad
 Ex: A helicopter designed for high speed and minimal hover
time may intentionally have low FM
 Also notice that a helicopter's FM changes based on
the loading condition
 Ex: When operating at low gross weight (e.g. one pilot, no
cargo), a helicopter will hover with lower collective and the
blades will operate at smaller angle of attack. This typically
reduces the lift-to-drag ratio and therefore the FM. The same
helicopter will have a higher FM when more fully loaded.

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 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Loiter Time
 Maximum amount of time the helicopter can stay aloft
before refuelling
 Ex: About 4 hours for commercial helicopters such as the Bell
505 and 412EPI
 Requires the helicopter to fly at a specific airspeed,
often around 60 knots, called the loiter speed
 Loiter speed is the airspeed with the lowest fuel flow
rate - smaller or larger speeds will burn fuel faster and
reduce time aloft

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 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Loiter Time
 Graph below shows fuel flow rate versus airspeed and marks the loiter speed
 Knowing this fuel flow rate ‘R’ and the aircraft fuel capacity ‘C’, one can
estimate the loiter time as ‘C/R’
 To be more accurate, ‘R’ also changes with weight and atmospheric
conditions
 Since weight drops as fuel is burned in a flight, ‘R’ decreases within a flight

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 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Range
 Distance a helicopter can fly without refuelling
(assuming no wind)
 This is about 300 to 400 nautical miles for modern
commercial helicopters
 Range is dependent on;
 weight (passengers and cargo on board)
 airspeed
 atmospheric conditions
 Range shrinks with added weight

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 PERFORMANCE METRICS
Range
 The airspeed that provides maximum range is not the same as
loiter speed
 Flying faster, while burning more fuel per unit time, burns less
fuel per unit distance
 Hence, range increases as airspeed increases above loiter speed
 This is true up to a limit called the max range airspeed (MRA)
 Beyond MRA, the fuel burn per unit distance increases
 Flying at MRA will get the helicopter from point A to B while
consuming the least fuel
 However, helicopters are often flown faster for passenger
convenience

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
 Power required by the helicopter governs most of the
performance metrics discussed
 Power may be subdivided into;
 Profile power
 Parasite power
 Induced power
 Miscellaneous
 The plot below gives a rough idea of how these values change
with airspeed

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
Profile Power
 Power required to overcome drag on the rotor blades
 This is often about 20% of the power required in hover
 This power increases with airspeed
 Initially, this is due to the larger airspeeds on advancing rotor blades
 At higher speeds, this increases further due to retreating blade stall and
advancing blade compressibility effects

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
Profile Power

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
Profile Power

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
Parasite Power
 Power required to pull the helicopter (minus the rotors) through the air
 This is associated with drag on the fuselage, skids and tail surfaces
 At low speeds this is negligible, but this drag increases with the square of the
airspeed so that the power increases with the cube of the airspeed

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
Parasite Power

Fuselage Drag

Parasite Power

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
Induced Power
 The velocity of air thrown down by the main rotor is called induced velocity
 Its magnitude can be estimated using momentum theory
 It causes the net direction of air movement relative to a main rotor blade to
be tilted down from the horizontal
 The diagram below shows a cross section of a rotor blade and the velocity of
air relative to it

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
Induced Power
 The left blue arrow labeled V (total)
 Lift is perpendicular to this velocity and hence it’s not directly upward, but
it's partially tilted rightward in the diagram
 The horizontal component of that lift vector (dashed line near the top of the
diagram) is called induced drag and pushes back against the rotor rotation
 The power required to overcome this component of lift (keep the rotor
turning at full speed) is induced power
 As you might expect from earlier discussion, this power is largest at hover
and low speed and reduces at higher speeds where the rotor accesses
“cleaner” air (with less induced velocity)

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 POWER REQUIREMENT
Miscellaneous Power
 Miscellaneous power includes;
 losses in the drive system
 power required for avionics, hydraulic pumps, the tail rotor,
etc
 This is normally less than 20% of the total power
required

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 REVISION
 We have learnt
 Helicopter Performance
 Performance Metrics
• Hover ceiling
• Figure of Merit
• Loiter time
• Range
 Power Requirement
• Profile power
• Parasite power
• Induced power
• Miscellaneous
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 IN CLASS ASSIGNMENT
 Discuss helicopter performance and limitations
 Find examples where helicopter performance could
have affected safe flight

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