A Limited Handling Qualities Evaluation of an Optionally Piloted Personal Air Vehicle During Manned-Unmanned Teaming Landing Tasks

This paper summarizes handling qualities test results for an optionally piloted vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) personal air vehicle (PAV) flight simulator using the Cooper-Harper Rating Scale (CHRS) and an alternative rating scale. Such alternative rating scale has been designed to include ratings for all possible task performance and pilot compensation combinations, unlike the CHRS. This research’s objective is to validate an alternative handling qualities rating scale to the CHRS that provides more valid, reliable, and robust evaluations. This paper summarizes the limited handling qualities evaluation results from both rating scales. This paper first describes the alternative rating scale system’s design in comparison to the CHRS. This paper then outlines the test methods and results from a series of single-ship and two-ship manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) landing approach tasks. A discussion of the results summarizes differences among rating scales and test scenarios.