On August 27, Advanced Technologies Inc. (ATI), the US Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), and SAIC successfully flew the Vigilante unmanned helicopter under control from an airborne UH-1 Huey at Felker Army Air Field, Virginia. The flight demonstrated Level 5 control of the Vigilante and it's mission equipment package including an L3 WESCAM 12DS EO/IR sensor gimbal and a HURL four-shot rocket launcher.

The 36-minute fight included automatic takeoff and landing without operator intervention and complete mission control by two operators aboard the Huey. The unmanned air vehicle and control helicopter flew formation with the UAV under autonomous waypoint and joystick control. The Low Cost Precision Kill (LCPK) demonstration vehicle simulated rocket firing runs using the electro-optical sensor and the rocket launcher under control of the Mission Payload Operator (MPO) aboard the Huey. The Vigilante control equipment was removed and the UH-1 returned to the utility configuration by two technicians in 1.5 hours.

LCPK plans call for live rocket firings at Yuma Proving Grounds.

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has announced an agreement to acquire Schweizer Aircraft Corp. in Elmira, New York. The Schweizer product line includes light helicopters, reconnaissance and agricultural aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Schweizer will continue to operate under its own name as a wholly owned subsidiary of Sikorsky. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

Schweizer produces Model 300 piston and 330 turbine engined helicopters for training, law enforcement, and other markets. The company is a component subcontractor for Sikorsky, and Shanghai Sikorsky was set up to market and ultimately manufacture both aircraft in the People's Republic of China. The purchase of Schweizer strengthens Sikorsky's capabilities in the UAV field, Under contract to Northrop Grumman, Schweizer manufacturers the air vehicle of the RQ-8 Firescout UAV system.

The US Army Project Manager Soldier Weapons located at Picatinny Arsenal has initiated full-rate production of the M240H machine gun for UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters. Picatinny engineers worked with Fabrique Nationale Manufacturing, Inc. to incorporate aircraft-related changes in the 7.62 mm M240 now used on many ground vehicles. The airborne gun has a new flash suppressor to work with Night Vision Goggles and an improved mount for greater accuracy. An egress kit converts the spade-trigger helicopter weapon to a butt-stock infantry configuration in 60 seconds. Delivery plans call for 3,900 M240Hs through 2007 to replace the veteran M60 machine gun aboard active Army, National Guard, and Reserve aircraft. "We're doing the entire fleet," says Lt. Col. Kevin Stoddard, program manger for crew-served weapons at Picatinny Arsenal. "The '60s will be gone." The Black Hawk typically carries two guns and the Chinook three.

The new helicopter gun has fired 41,000 mean rounds between stoppages and 83,000 mean rounds between failures -- 15 times more reliable than its predecessor. "The M60 is a fairly old system," explains Tom Walsh, product director for M240 machine gun. "In terms of reliability, it's night and day." The US Navy and Marine Corps have integrated the M240G machine gun with helicopters in separate efforts.

Work on the M240H started with an Army aviation requirement in 2002, and static firings at Picatinny in New Jersey were followed by flight trials at the Army Aviation Technical Test Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Full technical and user testing ran from March to May 2004 and brought positive reviews for the NVG flash suppressor from helicopter crews. "It definitely reduced bloom-out significantly," says Mr. Walsh. "It's a lot easier for them to stay on target ." Helicopter testing also led to the improve mount to reduce the dispersion of rounds fired from a vibrating platform. Follow-on work is underway on an hydraulic buffer to reduce vibration loads on the air vehicle.

Like its infantry and ground-vehicle versions, the M240H will fire up to 650 or 950 rounds a minute and has a maximum effective range greater than a mile. An aiming laser for airborne applications was tested but has yet to be approved for service by the Black Hawk product manager at the Army Aviation and Missile Command.

Sikorsky has chosen the Goodrich Integrated Mechanical Diagnostics- Health and Usage Management System (IMD-HUMS) for the modernized UH-60M Black Hawk. The IMD-HUMS will log more than 200 parameters from the new Black Hawk databus plus dedicated sensors and provide automated data collection and advanced mechanical diagnostics to determine the health of drive system gears, bearings, and shafts. Plans call for the system to be integrated aboard the Block I UH-60M starting with aircraft number 3.

The UH-60M IMD-HUMS includes a Vehicle Health Management Flight Unit (VHMFU) containing a Health and Usage Management System (HUMS), Bearing Monitoring Unit, Cockpit Flight Data Recorder (CVFDR) and Crash Survivable Memory Unit (CSMU). A PCMCIA card logs data and downloads to a ground station after each flight. According to Goodrich US Army Government Systems Manager, Steve Peckham, the system will provide a common operating maintenance picture that can reduce the UH-60M maintenance burden.

The Goodrich IMD-HUMS has been installed on one UH-60A and 30 UH-60Ls as part of the Black Hawk Platform Maintenance Environment with predictive maintenance capability.

BAE Systems has completed shakedown flights of the CONDOR II pilotage sensor and display system on a UK Army Air Corps Lynx in preparation for performance evaluation flights this October. The initial one-month test series will demonstrate day/night, all-weather terrain flight under classified conditions for the UK Ministry of Defense. A second round of tests in 2005 will incorporate laser radar and other enhancements into the integrated sensor/display suite. "We're building capability so next year we can push the envelope," says David Hewlett, BAE product manager for day/night all weather and head up displays.

CONDOR II trials are being flown on an Army Air Corps Lynx by pilots from 667 (Development and Test) Squadron at Middle Wallop, Hampshire.

The demonstration package integrates BAE uncooled forward looking infrared and low light television sensors with a helmet mounted display and the company's TERPROM terrain flight cueing system. Sensor fusion and display software and the TERPROM digital database are hosted on commercial-off-the-shelf computer cards in a 19 in. avionics rack.

The CONDOR II basic capability demonstration will initial fuse low light and infrared imagery at around 100 ft. Test pilots will see the combined scene with superimposed no-fly markers and directional chevrons to guide them around obstacles. An audio warning system will call out wires and ground obstructions. The second iteration of the system may incorporate a head-down display for moving maps with a terrain overlay. "We're kind of figuring out exactly what the configuration of Fight Trial Two is going to be," says Dr. Hewlett. BAE has already selected an unidentified laser radar supplier.

BAE Systems Platform Solutions received the three-year CONDOR II contract in June 2003 to build on sensor work done by the UK MOD in CONDOR I. The UK integrated product team is working with BAE engineers in the US working on a Radar Enhanced Vision System and plans to share processing hardware and other elements of the US program.

Honeywell Defense & Space Electronic Systems has concluded demonstration flights of a first-stage Organic Air Vehicle (OAV 1) for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In over 200 tethered and untethered flights, the 29 in. diameter Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAV achieved speeds to 30 knots and altitudes to 120 feet. It also demonstrated automatic takeoff and landing, "staring" hover, waypoint transition, video downlinks, and interfaces with ground control stations. The aircraft was launched from the back of a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) at the U.S. Army's McKenna Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) site at Fort Benning, Georgia. Maximum flight duration was 18 minutes.

DARPA has issued a Request For Proposals on a Class II UAV to work with the Army's Future Combat System. The OAV 2 is envisioned as a two-man transportable vehicle with two hours endurance at 10 km and a 22 lb payload. Honeywell is considering a ducted fan OAV 2 similar in size to the OAV1 concept demonstrators. "We're still looking at what we might do," explains Ben Simmons, vice president and general for surface systems in Honeywell Defense and Space Electronics Systems. "It definitely won't be the same vehicle."

The ducted fan OAV 1 demonstrators were built by Allied Aerospace and refined by Honeywell. The configuration provides VTOL performance in a safe package for ground troops but remains difficult to stabilize. Honeywell developed and integrated the micro-electric mechanical systems (MEMS) technology that made the vehicles controllable and refined the fan aerodynamics to improve performance. A slightly larger OAV 2 might carry its payloads in side fairings rather than at the center of the lift fan. It would also incorporate a collision avoidance capability independent of mission sensors. An OAV 2 Phase I contract would take the concept to preliminary design review and demonstrate the collision avoidance solution. The OAV 1 demonstrators used a 150 cc gasoline engine from 3W. The OAV 2 prototypes would use a larger version of the gasoline powerplant initially and advance to a heavy-fuel engine safer and easier to support in field units.

Honeywell is already building a 13 in. diameter ducted fan Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) tailored to the Army's FCS Class I UAV requirement. The Transitional MAV (T-MAV) demonstrator should advance through its Critical Design Review in October and fly in December. A diesel-fueled D-MAV may evolve into an operational system around 2010. A DARPA-managed Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) will give the 25th Infantry Division five man-portable systems to assess the military utility of MAVs in the US and Iraq. Each system includes a ground control station and two air vehicles in a backpack weighing 40 lb or less.

The prototype Chinook Transportable Flight Proficiency Simulator is being updated to the production CH-47F cockpit configuration with a Rockwell Collins Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS). Plans call for the new training device to be operational by the time the CH-47F begins Operational Testing at Fort Campbell in April 2006, and to support the CH-47F First Unit Equipped in mid-2007. The prototype simulator was based on the modest digital cockpit flown in the CH-47F Engineering Manufacturing and Development (EMD) aircraft. The CAAS cockpit derived from that in the MH-47G Special Operations Aircraft has five 6 by 8 in. multi-function displays.

Existing CH-47D Combat Mission Simulators with their massive motion bases and visual systems cannot deploy with fighting units. In contrast, the Transportable Flight Proficiency Simulator folds into two shipping containers, each 14 ft wide by 28 ft long by 11 ft high. The prototype was trucked from Naval Air Warfare Center Patuxent River, Maryland to Fort Campbell, Kentucky and set up in 10 days. "The idea is that units would be able to take this with them on an extended deployment," explains Ted Schmidt, logistics division chief at the Army Aviation and Missile Command.

The new transportable flight simulator is hosted on Dell Personal Computers and can be networked with other simulators for team training. It has a collapsible acrylic mirror visual system from Glass Mountain Optics Inc. The Crewview 180 by 50 degree projected collimated displays provide four forward and two chin window views. Unlike the CH-47D simulators that stimulate actual Night Vision Goggles, the new training device simulates NVG imagery with realistic blooming effects and under-the-goggles brightness. The transportable simulator will also incorporate motion-cueing seats from FCS Control Systems to reproduce cockpit acceleration and vibration.

The Army wants the transportable simulators primarily to maintain the instrument flying skills of deployed Chinook companies. Cargo helicopter crews returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom consumed costly flying hours restoring their instrument qualifications. "That's one thing that came back to haunt us with the soldiers coming back from Iraq," observes Mr. Schmidt.

The Army Training and Doctrine Command is still formulating a Chinook simulator fielding plan. Initial concepts called for 20 simulators, one for each 16-aircraft Chinook company. Alternatively, about a dozen regional simulators may serve the training needs of multiple units.

The prototype simulator with the CH-47F Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) cockpit was built by the Manned Flight Simulators Division at Naval Air Warfare Center Patuxent River under a Memorandum Of Agreement with the Army. Notional plans call for early production simulators to be built by the Navy before a technical data package is turned over to a commercial contractor for series production.