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Simulator Evaluations of Assistive Hover Automation Concepts for a Lift Plus Cruise eVTOL Vehicle (2025)
Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing vehicles have the potential to enable cost effective Urban Air Mobility appli-cations. These concepts also pose several challenging handling and control problems, which must be addressed prior to safe and efficient urban operations. This paper presents simulator evaluations of several Assistive Hover Automation concepts that are designed to assist pilots in transitioning to and maintaining a stabilized hover prior to landing. They were evaluated extensively in the Vertical Motion Simulator at NASA Ames Research Center. The experiments were built upon relevant operations with additional test cases exploring variations in glidepath angles and environmental conditions. This paper focuses on specific performance metrics during the approach and at touchdown, combined with pilot activity. It was found that the AHA concepts assist in improving performance while reducing the required pilot activity, also resulting in a more streamlined approach, transition to hover, and touchdown in a shorter time.
Air, Automation, Cruise, Evaluation, eVTOL, Lift, Mobility, Plus, Simulator, Urban
2025 AIAA DATC/IEEE 44th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), Montreal, QC, Canada, pp. 1-10, doi: 10.1109/DASC66011.2025.11257285
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