Abstract: Handling qualities are the most important factor in the design of the flying boom for air-to-air refueling. However, the systematic evaluation method and requirements of handling qualities are still not available for the research on the flying boom. In addition, there are only a few flying booms in the world, which means that the research data are not enough for the research on handling qualities. To obtain more research data to survey handling qualities, an adjustable controller is introduced in this paper after an analysis of the natural characteristics of the flying boom. The controller can change the response characteristic of the closed-loop system by changing the parameters of the reference model. In this way, the handling qualities of the samples with different response characteristics can be obtained. Then, the maneuver is designed according to the mission-oriented method to test the closed-loop system of the flying boom on the simulator. The subjective and objective evaluations are combined to get the results of handling qualities. The low-order equivalent system method is introduced to obtain the equivalent systems of the samples. The criteria for handling qualities are obtained by analyzing the relationship between the equivalent systems parameters and the results of mission-oriented method. The proposed evaluation method and requirement for handling qualities of the flying boom would provide some theoretical reference for the design and evaluatin of the flying boom.

Key words: handling quality, air-to-air refueling, based on mission-oriented method, requirement of handling quality, flying boom