The flight controllability and safety of unmanned compound rotorcraft are closely related to their aerodynamic characteristics. During forward flight, complex aerodynamic interference effects arise among the rotor, propeller, wing, fuselage, and horizontal–vertical tail. These interactions change dramatically with variations in forward speed, which may have a substantial impact on flight performance. This paper investigates aerodynamic interference related to the rotor, propeller, and fuselage of a sample unmanned compound rotorcraft with a novel configuration. On this basis, a flight dynamics model that incorporates the identified aerodynamic interference is formulated. Firstly, an analysis of rotor/propeller/fuselage aerodynamic interference is performed using the momentum source method (MSM). Subsequently, the aerodynamic models for the wing, fuselage, and horizontal–vertical tail are updated by integrating aerodynamic interference factors, leading to the development of a nonlinear flight dynamics model for the sample unmanned compound rotorcraft. Finally, to validate the updated flight dynamics model, numerical simulation results are systematically compared against wind tunnel test results. The results reveal a significant correlation between the numerical simulation data and wind tunnel test results, which indicates that the updated flight dynamics model possesses high accuracy and reliability and can characterize the dynamic characteristics of the sample unmanned compound rotorcraft within the flight speed envelope.

In order to simulate the flight state of the helicopter effectively, it is necessary to trim the helicopter during the forward flight in a wind tunnel test. Previously, due to the lack of an internal-control closed loop in the test rig, the helicopter-wind-tunnel-test trimming was carried out manually, with low test efficiency, unstable data quality, and high labor intensity. With the continuous development of computer technology and automatic control technology, the helicopter-wind-tunnel-test trimming technology has been developing in the direction of automation and intelligence. The helicopter wind tunnel test automatic trimming system is a typical multi-input–multi-output (MIMO), strongly coupled, and complex nonlinear system, involving data acquisition and a processing system, rotor control system, tail-supported mechanism control system, wind-tunnel-speed pressure control system, and other subsystems, which is difficult to describe with an accurate mathematical model. Therefore, in order to meet the needs of a 3 m diameter rotor model aerodynamic performance evaluation and noise characteristics research wind tunnel test, an error feedback variable step automatic trimming algorithm is proposed based on the fuzzy-control principle to realize automatic trimming of aerodynamic loads of rotor model in the forward flight state. To verify the effectiveness and reliability of the trimming strategy, a series of wind tunnel tests on a 3 m diameter scaled rotor model of a helicopter were conducted in the FL-17 aeroacoustics wind tunnel of China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center (CARDC) based on the Φ3m tail-supported helicopter rotor model wind tunnel test rig. The wind tunnel test’s results show that the proposed automatic trimming algorithm has the characteristics of fast trimming speed and high efficiency, which can realize the automatic trimming of rotor model aerodynamic loads under different test states in the wind tunnel test effectively and reliably and greatly improve the intelligence level of helicopter wind tunnel test.