Originally Posted by
SplineDrive
The crash was a result of the wrong set of control laws being active, not the rate of input... the crash isn’t representative of how well the aircraft will maneuver. Most rotary wing platforms are capable of blade to “something” strikes if control laws drive the aircraft to a bad state.
From my reading of the accident report the wrong set of control laws increased the roll input to cyclic command by a factor of 2.5 which led to over control resulting in a couple of roll reversals causing the blades to collide. The “instantaneous” roll rates achieved during the event were never higher than would be expected in aggressive flight maneuvers. One selling point of the ABC was the rotors were so stiff it would be impossible for them to deflect enough to collide even in the most severe maneuvers. The 97 accident shows this is not true and will be a governing constraint limiting the agility of an aircraft billed as being highly maneuverable.