Rotor Torque

The ‘Huey’ is now en route to BH Pacific’s Brisbane Airport facility where it will be restored to the full military standard of airworthiness.

It is anticipated that initially the helicopter will be used as the test vehicle for some newly developed military equipment. Because negotiations are still underway details have not been released but it is known that a significant amount of flying would be involved.

The major development programme to be undertaken by BH Pacific with technical support from Bell Helicopter and Avco Lycoming will involve the design development, installation and flight qualification of major modifications which will dramatically improve the payload, range, speed, hover performance and ride characteristics of the Huey at the same time as significantly decreasing operating costs.

The most significant modifications to be incorporated are:

a) Bell patented live transmission isolation mounts which reduce the 2 per-rev vibration by 75% and increase VNE to 120kts.

b) Upgrading of the current Lycoming T53L-13 engine to the -703 configuration giving 20% more power.

c) Upgrading of the complete drive train to accept the additional power.

d) Installation of the stiffened Model 412 tail boom with a ‘tractor’ tail rotor for enhanced controllability at high-density altitudes.

e) Installation of a ‘fail-safe’ type damage-tolerant main rotor blade.

With the exception of the newly developed live mount, all the modifications are currently flying on production model helicopters, the AH-1 Cobra, the Bell 212 and 412, but they have never been flown together on a UH-1H Iroquois.

The modified helicopter is expected to have a three-fold increase in payload under the most severe ‘hot and high’ conditions. The decreased operating costs would flow from the use of longer-life components and substantially increased TBO’s.

The development programme will require a substantial amount of local design engineering effort and an extensive flight test programme. This is the first time such an extensive helicopter modification programme has been undertaken in Australia and could be a realistic way for Australia to enter the helicopter manufacturing industry.

The Defence Department (Army) has expressed interest in the programme but, to date, it has been totally funded by BH Pacific. Expenditure has already exceeded $750,000 with a further expenditure of $1 million anticipated. Managing Director, Joe Moharich, believes that this substantial investment of private funds is justified on the basis of market potential in Australia, New Zealand and surrounding regions where the Iroquois is currently in service.

For maximum economy, the modifications could be incorporated in the course of periodic overhauls; when components are due for retirement they would be replaced by the upgraded components. The government should find this programme attractive; it offers Defence an increased capability at very moderate cost, it encourages local design development and production opportunities in a new field and it offers excellent export potential.

Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of this venture is that a ‘new’ Australian aerospace company is willing to risk its own capital on a defence-related project.

New Seahawk Simulator

The Minister for Defence, Mr Kim Beazley, has announced the purchase of a Seahawk helicopter flight simulator and weapons training system.

The successful tenderer for the $48 million project is the Singer Systems Division of the Singer Company, USA. A new facility at the Naval Air Station, Nowra, NSW, will be built to house the new simulator, which will be installed in September 1988.

Two Australian companies, Computer Sciences of Australia and Qantas, will be major sub-contractors in the design and assembly of the simulator and have teamed with Singer as a consortium called Qalink to provide ongoing development and support for the simulator. This will ensure that over 50% of the contract value will remain in Australia.

Helicopter of the Future

Helicopters without tail rotors are the ‘wave of the future’, according to a consensus of aviators who have flown McDonnell Douglas’ revolutionary No Tail Rotor (NOTAR) concept demonstrator.

The US Department of Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) took nearly 10 years to develop the NOTAR concept of anti-torque control. NOTAR technology replaced conventional tail rotors with a fan-driven circulation control system inside a tail boom. Pressurized air is vented through horizontal slots along the boom and through a thruster at the end.

The resulting systems counteracts the torque developed by the main rotor drive system. Without such a system, the torque would cause the aircraft to spin out of control.

Prior to the tour, pilots from the US Army aviation engineering flight test activity at Edwards Air Force Base put the aircraft through a week-long evaluation. Included in the test syllabus were manoeuvres typical to combat and to routine flight operations. NOTAR technology would be incorporated in any future light helo jointly developed by McDonnell Douglas and Hawker de Havilland as an eventual 500 series successor.

Bell and Boeing Vertol Developing World’s First Tilt-Rotor Unmanned Vehicle

Bell and Boeing Vertol are building the world’s first tilt-rotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV), known as the Pointer. The Pointer’s novel configuration is patterned after the revolutionary BellBoeing V-22 Osprey Tilt Rotor Aircraft. However, at only 250kg design gross weight, the Pointer weighs less than one percent of Osprey’s maximum gross weight.

The Pointer is a separate, privately funded development, which is being conducted in response to the increasing demand shown worldwide for versatile, low-cost UAVs.

The 250kg all-composite aircraft offers numerous advantages over other UAVs now in use or under development. It can take off, hover and land vertically and in a production configuration, engineers predict the Pointer will be able to cruise at high speeds (dash at 160 knots in the aeroplane mode) and loiter in an orbital pattern, hover for hours over a fixed position, or even land and hide!

The Pointer’s ability to combine vertical takeoffs and landings with fast, stable and level flight means neither it nor its payload must be hardened to withstand the excessive G loads conventional fixed-wing UAVs suffer during catapult launches and net-arrested recoveries. With no high G forces affecting the Pointer, its future mission-equipment packages need not be constrained.

Soft landings permit turnaround times as brief as 10 minutes. Conventional fixed-wing UAVs frequently require repairs following net or parachute recoveries, or extensive refurbishment following water landings alongside ships at sea. The Pointer’s compact overall dimensions of 13 feet (3. 9m) long by 12 feet (3. 6m) wide permit operations from a variety of ships large and small, from clearings in forests or jungles, or from tiny plateaus in mountainous terrain. Modular construction allows the Pointer to be packed and shipped in small containers and transported and assembled by as few as three men. At 104kg, the fuselage is the aircraft’s heaviest single component. The nominal payload is 34kg and the Pointer can remain on station for as long as seven hours. While data links from ground stations limit mission radius to 100 nautical miles line of sight, advanced onboard computer guidance systems could eventually allow the Pointer to fly much greater distances.

US market potential alone for these systems is estimated at nearly $600 million. The team believes about half that amount will be directed toward UAVs, with expenditures split about equally between air vehicles and their electronics.

Those prospective purchaser dollars have not encouraged the gold-plating of the Pointer UAV, whose initial payload will most likely be a commercially available TV camera, demonstrating the Pointer’s ability to provide real-time aerial surveillance data links quite economically. Wherever possible, the prototype’s system will consist of relatively low cost, off-the-shelf units. “For example, we acquired our flight control system for $5,000,” Charles Fay, Boeing Vertol’s director of Preliminary Design said. “It’s based on an excellent system used by radio-controlled model builders. ”

The Bell-Boeing team will conduct engineering flight tests of the Pointer, after which marketing demonstration flights will be performed beginning in 1988 for potential users.

“What we’ll really be doing is flying a radio-controlled model,” Fay said, “a 550-pound model. It’s also going to be flown by a radio-controlled modeller, not a pilot,” Fay explained.

Simplicity is at the heart of the Pointer UAV, embracing operational as well as design considerations. Fay expects eventual production versions of the Pointer to have ultra-simple flight controls allowing minimally trained non-pilots to operate the Pointer with ease. “The control box,” Fay said, “could have as few as three buttons: speed, altitude and heading.

“It’s not too hard these days to provide a lightweight onboard computer that would allow the Pointer to fly a pre-programmed mission, even nap of the earth to avoid detection. The Pointer could then loiter on station for hours and return by another preselected discrete route,” Fay observed.

Improved Product Support for AS350 and AS358

Following recent discussions between Aerospatiale Helicopters Australia and Dunlop Aviation Australia, the agreement has been reached whereby Dunlop Aviation Australia are now approved to conduct overhauls of AS350 hydraulic servos and operate a pool of approximately 10 exchange units. Dunlop Aviation Australia are based in Bayswater, Victoria and are heavily involved with F-18 hydraulic offset programmes.

Aha to Be Distributors

Agreement has recently been reached in principle with Turbomeca in France for AHA to take over the Turbomeca distributorship for Australasia. AHA expects to receive shortly consignment stock from Turbomeca which will be composed of an Arriel warranty engine, modules and main accessories which will be available for warranty, exchange, rental and sale. AHA will be responsible for the management of Turbomeca stock throughout Australia and will report directly to Turbomeca in France.

Locally Made Plastics for AS350 and AS358

Aerospatiale Helicopters and Aeroplastics Pty Ltd have been working in close association for some time to provide a superior locally produced alternative to the windscreens, windows and plastics formerly only available from overseas.

Aeroplastics have now produced a complete range of window and windscreen components for the AS350 and AS355 Squirrels and recent flight tests were conducted on a new rear door window and a new crew door sliding window.

The manufacture of these new windows follows a new technique whereby the window is formed by being blown into a mould. This new process has proved highly successful and offers considerably enhanced levels of rigidity and improved optics.

The new sliding windows produced by Aeroplastics feature a lower slider track which greatly improves pilot peripheral vision.

Computerised Spares

Aerospatiale Helicopters of Australia has invested $A500,000 in IBM computer equipment in an attempt to create one of the best spares control support systems in Australia.

At any given time AHA is holding around $A5 million in helicopter spares, to which it is adding Socata and Turbomeca parts and is now able to provide an increasingly higher level of operator-requested components from stock.

By using the IBM system, parts are despatched within 4 to 5 hours of placement of an order, with staff working into the night, if necessary, to ensure orders are filled. Warehouses are located at Bankstown, Perth and Brisbane, with a new facility being established in Melbourne. There is also an agent in Adelaide.

One of the main benefits gained by the computer is its ability to analyse spares consumption over the previous year and recommend that certain parts be pre-ordered. Different parts have different lead times and the computer takes all this information into account.

Minimum stock levels are reviewed daily. AHA’s policy is to hold a minimum of 12 weeks and a maximum of 16 weeks for projected spares requirement. Parts unused after two years will be returned to the factory. A continuing programme of software development is also underway and Aerospatiale has sent George Michel to work with AHA to further improve spares support to customers. The next step wilt be to connect the system by satellite to the central spares computer in France. This will permit an instant re-ordering of parts with particular benefits to operators wanting components urgently.