Vehicle Vibration Prediction — Why and How

Abstract

Thank you very much for inviting me to be a Keynote speaker at this Industrial Vibration Modelling Conference. I am not sure whether the conference organisers selected a speaker from the helicopter industry because of our reputation in controlling vibration, or because of the high vibration found on helicopters! However, it is fair to say that the vibration standard of helicopters is not as good as most other modern forms of transport, and therefore we can claim some experience with this problem. In fact the problem of high vibration has been with the helicopter since its birth, and in the nineteen seventies a long term research programme was initiated to investigate both causes and cures. This exercise has been quite successful, and the low levels of vibration achieved on our latest machines are beginning to show the benefits of the studies. We are not yet satisfied however, and the efforts to further reduce vibration are continuing.