Experimental analysis of the helicopter ditching

The paper presents the method and results of the model tests of helicopter ditching, aimed at adaptation of the helicopter's construction for marine mis-sions. The experiment, realized by Maritime Advanced Research Centre S.A. (CTO) required elaboration of dedicated measurement stand, and solving a number of specific technical problems resulting from the necessity of assuring the repeatability, and required accuracy of the measurements and scalability of the results. Such kind of experiment is not a standard task of a hydrodynamic model testing institution, so it brings an innovation in the testing methodology. The paper presents the details of the test stand and the model itself with rotating rotor, design of the experiment, as well as an overview of the results and main conclusions.