XH‐59A ABC™ Aircraft Flight Tests at Ft. Rucker, Alabama

The XH‐59A ABC™ demonstrator aircraft is a research vehicle designed to investigate the unique characteristics of the Advanced Blade Concept. The aircraft, shown in Fig. 1, has now completed an extensive flight test programme investigating its full airspeed, altitude, and manoeuvring envelope. Aircraft design was initiated in 1972, with first flight in July 1973, with certain interruptions to review and analyse flight data and make modifications to the aircraft. The culmination of the flight test programme was a 12.7 hour evaluation of the aircraft by the US Army Aviation Development and Test Activity at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. This evaluation is the subject of this technical report. Reference 1 is the Army report documenting their evaluation. The XH‐59A programme has been jointly funded by the US Army, Navy and Air Force, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Sikorsky Aircraft. The majority of funding has come from the Army.