Numerical Whirl-Flutter Investigation of the European Tiltrotor Concept: Current Status and Future Prospects

This paper describes the status of the numerical whirl-flutter investigation of the European tiltrotor concept that is carried over by the EU funded ADYN Consortium within Work Package 1. The European tiltrotor concept is based on an innovative approach to the design of tilting rotor aircraft that minimizes the drawbacks related to rotor-wing interaction while exploiting partial wing tilting to improve performances and control while in conversion configuration. ADYN stands for "Advanced European tiltrotor DYnamics and Noise". The aim of Work Package 1 is to perform numerical whirl-flutter investigations on the European Tiltrotor concept to provide support for the design and the testing of a semi-span whirl-flutter model that will be tested in 2005-2006, and to provide correlations between the aeroelastic stability prediction capabilities of the participating partners, which include a collection of European helicopter industries, aerospace research centers and universities.