The Effect of Atmospheric Turbulence on Helicopter Recovery to a Twin-Island Aircraft Carrier

This paper describes an investigation into the effect that turbulence in the air flow approaching an aircraft carrier has on the airwake over the flight deck and, subsequently, on helicopter recovery. CFD was used to generate the unsteady air flow over a full-scale Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier in a wind approaching 10° off the port-side. A steady inlet velocity profile was used for the approaching wind and an array of blocks was placed upstream of the ship to create a turbulent air flow. Thirty seconds of unsteady CFD has been integrated with a helicopter flight dynamic model to create a simulation environment in which real-time piloted flight trials were conducted. Pilot workload and DIPES ratings were obtained during the trial, which along with recorded trial data, was used to analyse the effect of the inlet conditions on the helicopter and pilot workload. The results show that while the turbulence in the air flow approaching the ship did affect the flow field over the flight deck, there was less effect on the workload experienced by the pilot during simulated deck landings.