The aerodynamic behavior of tiltrotors is significantly more complex than that of traditional configurations, primarily due to their various flight modes. Proprotor generates a wake characterized by unsteadiness, nonlinearity, and a helical structure, which could interact strongly with other rotors, the wing, tail surfaces, fuselage, and even with the ground or deck in certain operating conditions. These complex aerodynamic phenomena of tiltrotors present significant challenges for the development of accurate and efficient aerodynamic modeling and analysis methods, which must be capable of predicting aerodynamic performance and capturing interactions among multiple aerodynamic surfaces. This paper presents a review on the aerodynamic modeling and analysis of tiltrotors in various operating modes. The primary methods employed to analyze tiltrotor aerodynamics are introduced and systematically reviewed according to their levels of fidelity. Subsequently, the main flow phenomena and representative studies across various flight modes are presented. Finally, key observations are summarized, and current challenges and developing trends in the field are identified and discussed.
Niu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.