Touchdown orientation control system for a rotary wing aircraft and method

A rotary wing aircraft control system comprising:

• an airframe;
• a main rotor assembly supported by the airframe;
• a control system arranged in the airframe and operatively connected to the main rotor assembly, the control system including a flight control computer (FCC), at least one control inceptor device and a touchdown orientation control system, the touchdown orientation control system including a computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code, when executed by the FCC, causes the FCC to:
• sense, by a sensor operatively connected to a flight control computer (FCC), an altitude of the rotary wing aircraft relative to a landing surface;
• determine, through the FCC, one of a landing state rearward velocity reference limit value and a landing state lateral velocity reference limit value associated with the altitude;
• and
• selectively limit, by the FCC, an in-detent flight envelope of the rotary wing aircraft to the one of the landing state rearward velocity reference limit value and the landing state lateral velocity reference limit value.