iMission - Leonardo Helicopters integrated performance simulation: consolidating decades of lessons learnt and keeping the door open to the lessons to be learnt

Abstract

The capability to predict of the performance of a product is the key for a number of evaluations, ranging from marketability, to requirement satisfaction, from competitive advantage to operational planning. For this reason, from an historical perspective, the first analytical tools developed in the industry have in most cases been the performance codes. And for the very same reason performance tools are the first used in a development project or, better say, before the launch of a project. In Leonardo Helicopters, performance software have been developed since the 70s~80s in the both former companies, Agusta and Westland, creating a solid base which incorporated over time all the experience gained during the development of products like the Lynx, the A109, the EH101, the A129 or the AB139. In the recent years, the eco-sustainability questions posed by the CleanSky European research program and the momentum of the Company towards tiltrotors created the need for an upgrade of the performance tools. It has thus been decided to develop a common code, iMission, able to replicate the helicopter the well-established methods, allowing new configurations to be included as well as improving usability and graphing functions and including the suite for emission-related calculations.