Overview of a Comprehensive MD530F Acoustic Flight Test

A cooperative flight test campaign between the US Army and NASA was performed. This test sought to characterize the acoustic emissions of a fully instrumented MD530F helicopter using a snapshot array and a phased array of microphones. The snapshot array of microphones aimed to provide even coverage across the surface of a hemisphere, providing an acoustic emission hemisphere in a single ‘snapshot’ of time. The phased array of microphones was designed to provide enough resolution to determine noise sources from each individual blade as well as perform source separation from main rotor and tail rotor emissions. Test conditions for the characterization effort were chosen using a traditional one-factor-at-a-time approach as well as three design of experiment approaches. Characterization conditions included constant speed level flight, descent, and ascent conditions. Transient maneuver conditions were also captured over the snapshot array. The vehicle instrumentation included measurements of pilot controls, optical sensors to measure blade azimuth locations, pitch link loads, along with strain gauges to measure structural loads blades and fuselage. This report will provide an overview of the test, document the data acquired, and provide some initial results.