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Sikorsky Aircraft has received a contract modification from the US Army to convert four more UH-60L Black Hawk utility helicopters into the HH-60L medical evacuation aircraft. Army orders already call for nine Medevac/Dust-Off HH-60Ls in 2004; the additional aircraft will be delivered in 2005. Design work continues on the recapitalized HH-60M with the first delivery expected in Fiscal 2006. The Army Program Objective Memorandum has called for more than 300 Medevac Black Hawks to equip active and reserve units.

Active Army units now have one HH-60L at Ft Hood, Texas, one at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and two deployed in Iraq. The National Guard fleet currently includes four UH-60Q's in Tennessee; three HH-60L's in West Virginia; and two HH-60Ls in California. The 507th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) from Fort Hood and the 126th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) of the California Guard were the first units to deploy the HH-60L in combat with detachments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The current HH-60L has an Air Methods clinical interior, Martin Baker crashworthy attendant seats, and a Goodrich external rescue hoist. The integrated cockpit is built around multi-function displays from Litton/Northrop Grumman or EFW and control display units from CMC. A comprehensive navigation suite includes a FLIRSystems AN/AAQ-22 Star Safire II Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) sensor, AN/ASN 128C integrated Doppler/Global Positioning System (GPS), AN/ARN 153 Tactical Airborne Navigation (TACAN) set, AN/ARN 147 VHF Omni-Range/Instrument Landing System (VOR/ILS) radio receiver, AN/ARN 149 LF-ADF direction finder, and AN/ARS 6 Personnel Locator System (PLS). The communications suite includes AN/ARC 220 HF, AN/ARC 164 UHF, AN/ARC 201D SINCGARS, AN/ARC 222 VHF-AM/FM radios.

Along with its more powerful T700-GE-701D engines and broad-chord rotor system, the new HH-60M introduces a Rockwell Collins integrated cockpit and an enhanced medical oxygen generation system. The HH-60M medical interior comes to Sikorsky Government Furnished Equipment, and Air Methods is currently conducting tradestudies on improvements.

In March, the US Air Force loaded a Navy MH-60S aboard a C-17 jet transport for the first time to perform load validation tests. The Sikorsky Knight Hawk became the seventh helicopter model validated on the Boeing Globemaster III. The successful load validation at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, will generate loading procedures to be incorporated in the C-17 loading manual. Once the procedures are published in the manual, any C-17 loadmaster worldwide is authorized to transport the Knight Hawk.

The C-17 has a cargo compartment 88 feet (26.82 m) long by18 feet (5.48 m) wide by 12 feet 4 inches (3.76 m) high. Navy personnel from Naval Aircraft Test and Evaluation Squadron 21 and other commands helped Air Force prepare the MH-60S Knight Hawk helicopter into a C-17 Globemaster.

The dynamics and powertrain of the new Eurocopter EC225 medium lift helicopter have completed 220 hours endurance testing on an "iron bird" test rig in preparation for FAA certification testing. The EC225 is the latest version of the Super Puma and incorporates 2,400 shp Makila 2A engines, an uprated transmission with 30-minute run-dry capability, and a Spheriflex five-bladed composite main rotor with advanced airfoils and anhedral parabolic tips. Maximum takeoff weight with internal loads is 24,255lb (11,000 kg).The military version is designated EC725.

The endurance tests at the Eurocopter facility in Marignane France included 20 cycles of 11 hours duration, 40 hours at take-off power, 80 hours at maximum continuous power and 40 hours at One Engine Inoperative emergency power.

A reconfigurable cockpit procedures trainer for the HH-60J Jayhawk and HH-65B Dolphin is near Ready For Training in both helicopter configurations at the US Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Alabama. Aero Simulation, Inc. (ASI) delivered the reconfigurable trainer in February 2004, just nine months after contract award. The device was ready for HH-60 training soon after delivery and will be approved for HH-65 students by the end of April. The new procedures trainer was hurried into service to absorb some of the training load while more elaborate Weapons System Trainers are being modernized.

The fixed-base cockpit procedures trainer uses touch-sensitive liquid crystal displays to represent the Jayhawk or Dolphin crewstation with working instruments and controls. Three 21 in. LCDs represent the main instrument panel; two simulate the center console; and two reproduce overhead controls. Students can page through actual menus on multi-function displays and lift simulated guards to work virtual switches. Different software packages reconfigure the photo-realistic cockpit layout to mimic either aircraft. Non-functional cyclic and collective levers at the pilot's seat provide working switch functions.

Aero Simulation, Inc. borrowed operating software from the more costly HH-60J and HH-65B Weapons Systems Trainers to give the cockpit procedures trainer high system fidelity. GLStudio software from DiSTI captured high-resolution images of each instrument and animates dial or tape displays. Advanced Simulation Technology Inc. (ASTi) provided the aural cue system for the trainer.

Rockwell Collins, Inc. Government Systems has been awarded a Naval Air Systems Command contract to incorporate functions unique to the VH-60N Presidential transport helicopter into the Collins Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS). The modern, modular CAAS is currently being installed in US Army Special Operations helicopters. Rockwell Collins will capture VH-60N requirements; build, integrate and document software; and build of a VH-60N engineering hot bench. It will also support VH-60N Platform Integration and Test. The work will be performed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and should be completed by September 2005. Rockwell Collins is on the Sikorsky-led VH-92 team competing to build the new VXX Presidential transport helicopter.

Marine Squadron HMX-1 uses eight VH-60N White Hawks on selected US Presidential transport missions. NAVAIR designed the hardware and software integrated by Sikorsky into the current Presidential helicopter cockpits. The Presidential Helicopter Program Software Support Activity at the Naval Air Warfare Center, Patuxent River, Maryland originally designed a derivative of the VH-3D integrated cockpit for the VH-60N. Upgrades over time have given both aircraft a common cockpit still unique to the Presidential fleet.

CAAS is a derivative of the Rockwell Collins Flight2 avionics architecture adaptable to military, business and commercial aircraft. The SOF CAAS now on order for the MH-47G, MH-60K/M, and MH-6M Special Operations helicopters is a flexible software architecture that can run multiple isolated applications on a single processor. The scaleable CAAS uses one Power PC 750 processor in the each Control Display Unit (CDU) and two Power PC 750 processors in each Multifunction Display (MFD). The SOF CAAS common cockpit planned for the recapitalized MH-60M Black Hawk has five 6 by 8 in. MFDs and two CDUs. The open system architecture with its Windows-based operating system is meant to simplify connectivity and support.

Lockheed Martin Develops Survivability Software

Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, NY has received a research and development contract for survivability software to protect manned and unmanned rotorcraft. The $7.8 million contract from the U.S. Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) at Fort Eustis, VA calls for the Survivability Planner Associate Rerouter (SPAR) system. SPAR technologies are planned for insertion by 2007 into the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter and ultimately the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR).

Derived from work on the Rotorcraft Pilots Associate (RPA), SPAR will collect air defense threat data from on-board and off-board sensors and use terrain, aircraft signatures, and countermeasures to mitigate the danger. On unmanned aircraft, the software may trigger countermeasures or command maneuvers through the flight control system. On manned platforms, SPAR recommendations may generate a three-dimensional safe pathway in the sky on cockpit or head-up displays. The SPAR may also recommend team action by mixed formations of manned and unmanned systems, calling for some aircraft to engage the threat while others take evasive action.

Lockheed Martin in Owego will lead the 42-month SPAR development effort, which will culminate with UCAR and manned attack helicopter simulations. The project also involves Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Labs and Aeronautics Advanced Development Programs. Intended subcontractors include Dynetics Inc., Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, and ISX Corp.

Air Methods Corp. Products Division has received a contract from the Los Angeles County Fire Department to outfit a third Sikorsky S-70A Black Hawk in the FIREHAWKTM configuration for airborne firefighting, search and rescue, emergency medical transport, fire crew transportation, and internal or external cargo transport. The $1.9 million contract calls for work to start in May 2004 at the Air Methods facility in Englewood, Colorado. Delivery is scheduled for the first half of 2005.

To achieve commonality with the first two FIREHAWKS Air Methods will give the new helicopter a multi-mission interior and a Honeywell glass cockpit. The Honeywell EDZ-756 Electronic Flight Information System has horizontal situation and artificial horizon displays for the pilot and co-pilot. However, the customer has asked for removable left-seat controls to operate the aircraft with an observer.

Air Methods’ multi-mode pilot control system enables the pilot to raise and lower the firefighting snorkel or rescue hoist and dump water, hoist, or cargo hook loads with the same cyclic switch, depending on the selected mode. The arrangement keeps the pilot’s hands on the controls during critical flight operations. The VFR-only aircraft has a commercial GPS navigator and transponder, and the new crewstation groups cockpit controls and displays on the right side of the instrument panel for single-pilot operations. Like its predecessors reclaimed from Brunei VIP aircraft, the new-build FIREHAWK will have a sophisticated Seahawk flight control system with automatic approach, hover, and departure modes.

In the firefighting role, the FIREHAWK is able to deliver 1,000 gallons of water from its Aero Union belly tank. The tank is filled in 45 seconds through an electrically extended snorkel that can draw from almost any water source near the fire area to maximize firefighting delivery rate. The aircraft is also equipped with a Breeze Eastern electric rescue hoist and Air Methods’ Articulated Patient Loading System APLS for two patients up to seven attendants. Alternatively, fold-up seats accommodate up to 13 passengers.

The L.A. County Fire Department has accumulated 1,890 hours in over 7,836 missions with two FIREHAWKs since 2001. During the most recent fires in Los Angeles, the helicopters dropped over 400,000 gallons of water during a critical two-day period. In addition, the helicopters have performed numerous EMS transports including a medical evacuation of four critical pediatric patients and seven attending paramedics in a single flight out of an accident scene where a car had crashed into an aqueduct.

Air Methods is also now building 11 Medevac interiors for US Army HH-60L Black Hawks, and is conducting tradestudies for HH-60M improvements. The company has so far delivered 15 clinical interiors for four UH-60Qs and 11 HH-60Ls.

Kollsman, Inc. has completed Critical Design Review on the Night Targeting System Upgrade (NTS-U) for 40 Bell AH-1W SuperCobras of the US Marine Corps Reserve. Reserve units will be the last Marine light attack helicopter squadrons to trade their AH-1Ws for the AH-1Z with its new Target Sight System (TSS). The NTS-U significantly improves the capability of the current SuperCobra sight and introduces reliability and maintainability improvements. Plans call for the first NTS-U prototypes to be delivered in September 2004 for flight testing. A production decision is expected in late 2004 or early 2005. US Marine Corps orders would make the NTS-U available to upgrade SuperCobras in Taiwan and Turkey.

Kollsman, now part of Elbit, completed AH-1W NTS deliveries in 2003. The NTS-U replaces the long-wave, first-generation Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) now in service with a mid-wave, third-generation staring FLIR. The change promises better resolution and longer range in the Marine operating environment. NTS-U also augments the black-and-white TV camera in the current system with a color CCD providing better performance in low light conditions. The existing laser designator remains unchanged.

The Marine Corps ultimately plans to modernize six active-duty and four reserve Light Attack (HMLA) squadrons, and a Fleet Replacement Squadron with 180 AH-1Zs remanufactured from AH-1Ws. Initial Operational capability is planned for 2008, but with Z-model deliveries stretching through 2014, Reserve units can expect to fly the AH-1W for a decade. HMLA-773 equipped with AH-1Ws and UH-1Ns recently returned from Afghanistan where it became the first Reserve light attack squadron to claim known enemy kills in a combat zone.

The Sikorsky S-92 helicopter has successfully completed the artificial icing portion of its FAA icing certification program, clearing the aircraft for its final all-weather operations certification tests. S-92 Number 3 has completed over 80% of the test requirements for icing certification. It has already begun natural icing trials and will seek out a range of natural icing conditions in the months ahead. When testing is complete, the S-92 will be the first helicopter to be certified under the most rigorous FAR/JAR Part 29 icing rules. No weather operating limitations are envisioned. Previous helicopters were designed and tested to older criteria, and are often limited to "moderate icing" conditions.

"The tanker tests validate the design capabilities of the main rotor and tail rotor ice protection system. The system behaved flawlessly in both continuous and intermittent maximum icing conditions," said Robert Flemming, Chief of Icing Technology for Sikorsky. S-92 rotor blades, windshields, and other critical components are electrically heated by dual 75 kVA generators. Redundant control computers time the power to the blades to shed ice from the main and tail rotor automatically. The digital control system is fully integrated into the S-92's glass cockpit and include monitoring and diagnostic functions.

A Sikorsky team in Marquette, Michigan, worked with a CH-47D Chinook icing tanker and a C-12G Huron icing scout from the U.S. Army's Aviation Technical Test Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama. The Chinook with a Helicopter Icing Spray System (HISS) provides up to two hours of flight in artificial icing conditions. The HISS water is mixed with a dye to improve visibility of the accreted ice on the aircraft. The C-12G confirms that the cloud satisfies certification conditions before the helicopter is immersed.

The S-92 previously completed cold weather, engine inlet and snow tests and is already certified for operation in these conditions.

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