The flying controls should not be over-sensitive, to an extent that leads di­rectly to difficulty in establishing or maintaining any desired flight condition, or that promotes pilot induced oscillations (leaflet 600/7, para 3)

With this intentionally catch-all parlance, Def Stan 970 leaves it to the manufacturer to decide how this is to be achieved. In contrast, the criteria in ADS-33 quantify respon­siveness and sensitivity and lay down mandatory quality boundaries on measurable parameters. A comparison of the philosophy in the two distinct approaches could oc­cupy much of this chapter but the author is reluctant to embark on such a venture. In the author’s view, however, one thing that does need to be stressed is that the resources applied to the development of ADS-33, and the harnessing of the best international facilities, have resulted in a breakthrough in the development of helicopter flying qualities – all based on the creation of a new flying qualities test database, the absence of which has hindered several previous initiatives over the last 25 years. Def Stan 970 complements the more substantiated US requirements, and those areas where 970 provides additional insight will be highlighted in this chapter.

If we turn to flying qualities requirements for civil helicopters, we find safety a much more significant driver and the requirements are once again more qualitative in nature (Refs 6.10-6.13). Of major concern are the safety of operations in the ever – decreasing weather minima and the ability of the pilot to recover to safe flight following major system failures. Handling qualities research efforts have therefore been focused on the development of requirements for artificial stability to support IFR flight and flight test procedures for recovering from failures. The increased emphasis on military flying qualities requirements in recent years has also prompted a closer examination of the potential of the new criteria formats for civil applications. One such review is reported in Ref. 6.12, and some of the ideas arising from this study will be sampled throughout Chapters 6 and 7.

This chapter is primarily about how Level 1 helicopters should behave and how to test for compliance, not how they are made. Design issues are touched on occasionally in the context of criteria development but will not be central to the discussion. The reader is referred to Chapters 4 and 5 for implicit design considerations through the analysis of trim, stability and response. However, the subject of design for helicopter flying qualities, including bare airframe and stability and control augmentation, is left for a future book and perhaps to an author closer to the manufacturing disciplines.