The rotorcraft industry needs Virtual Engineering first to ensure decisions made early in the life-cycle, at the requirements capture and preliminary design phases for example, are reliably informed. Later, in design, development and qualification, Virtual Prototypes can become the centre of attention for critical reviews and, ultimately, certification itself. A significant challenge is to ensure that model fidelity is good enough, not only for supporting design decisions but also in establishing requirements based on sufficiently mature technologies. This international conference, Rotorcraft virtual engineering; supporting life-cycle engineering through design and development, test and certification and operations and co-sponsored by the RAeS/AHS/A3F/DGLR/AIDAA addressed these themes and this paper reviews and assesses the value of the various contributions.
