Browse Topic: Interiors, Cabins, and Cockpits
This digital standard is a requirements extract of AS861C Minimum General Standards for Oxygen Systems. This file contains a general requirements extraction as well as files that are optimized for use with Doors Classic, Siemens Polarian, and PTC.
The biography of Henrich Focke is well known and documented. During a small period from October 1954 to February 1956 he held lectures at the Technical University of Stuttgart during the winter semester. In the summer period he returned to Brazil for continuation of his contract work on the "Convertiplane" (a quad-tiltrotor aircraft) and the "Bei-jaflor" (a small single rotor helicopter). The topic of Focke's lecture in the winter semester 1954-55 was "Design of Fixed-Wing Aircraft", but the lecture manuscript of it is unavailable. In the following period 1955-56 Focke lectured about "Helicopter Design" and the manuscript was recently found in the central archive of DLR. It covers 123 pages of text with sketches and graphs and provides deep insights into the helicopter design philosophy of Henrich Focke.
A study into the effects of a low ice adhesion strength coating and combined low power thermal heater system was conducted. Preliminary tests determined the mass of ice necessary to shed from the low ice adhesion strength coating at a specific ambient temperature (-4°C, -8°C, -12°C, and-16°C). The heater tests were conducted at an ambient temperature of -20°C, where the same mass of ice was accreted for each specific case temperature. With the accreted mass, the heaters were turned on until a shed event occurred. The surface temperature at the shed event was recorded. For colder temperatures such as -12°C and-16°C, the surface needed to reach a temperature within 1°C of -12°C and-16°C, respectively, to initiate a shed event. For the warmer cases the replication of ice at -20°C was not feasible, as the type of ice influences adhesion strength. Ice accreted at -20°C has different physical properties than ice formed at warm temperatures, therefore the surface temperature required for shedding did not match between the two tests. Results from the heater tests led to a discovery of a value that describes the adhesion strength normalized with respect to shed surface temperature. The value was found to be -1.09 psi/°C, averaged over six cases with varying conditions. This value is dependent upon a wide range of adhesion strength values for the system but opens possibilities of a full understanding of the hybrid thermal/passive coating system. With the experimental characterization of the adhesion strength to shed surface temperature value, future coating development could rely on heating the surface and recording the surface temperature needed for shedding. With such value, the ice adhesion strength of the coating could be characterized without the need for ice adhesion strength measurements.
Piloted evaluations form a critical part of Handling Qualities (HQ) testing. Military rotorcraft standard ADS-33 outlines the widely accepted approach to perform HQ testing, including both methods to determine predicted and assigned HQs (Ref. 1). Recently, ADS-33 has been replaced with MIL-DTL-32742, which includes updates to previously defined criteria and tasks (Ref. 2). Assigned HQs are awarded using short-look tasks, so-called Mission Task Elements (MTEs), stylized to represent mission requirements. Test courses focus on external visual cues, used by the pilot to judge position. Setting up external courses is usually expensive and may not be feasibly possible. The MCRUER (Means of Compliance Requirements for UAM Evaluations and Ratings) system intends to support HQ evaluations, replacing physical test courses using virtual displays. Four MTEs were successfully demonstrated in flight by three pilots using a variable stability rotorcraft. HQ evaluations were performed both using physical courses (live) and the MCRUER virtual courses. Handling Qualities Ratings (HQRs) were found to be consistent across both live and virtual courses with identifiable trends. Differences observed between the two cueing environments are described. Overall, virtual displays were found to improve pilot adherence to task specifications, even exceeding live-courses for a specific tasks.
The emergence of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) air vehicles is transforming how people and freight are moved in short distances. This transformation has a profound impact on surrounding infrastructure necessary to provide Aircraft On Ground support for eVTOLs. The hover capabilities of eVTOLs have similar operating characteristics within terminal and uncontrolled airspace. However, the need to conserve battery energy via rapid approaches and departures affects terminal airspace management. To attract eVTOL operators, existing airports, landing zones, and vertiports are modifying their infrastructure to include fixed electric charging stations, additional taxiways, upgraded fire suppression systems, separate hangers, and capable MRO facilities. Augusta Regional Airport (KAGS) is the base airport for the annual Masters Golf Tournament which experiences five times the normal airport traffic and some 40,000 commuting patrons. eVTOLs can offset land traffic issues associated with commuters and supplies. Since KAGS is centroid to 32,000 square miles of territory void of major highways, basing eVTOLs can offer expedited transit services for people and goods which will have a profound impact on the economic viability and quality of life in the area.
Helicopter aircrew are exposed to high levels of whole-body vibration (WBV) in fight operations, which may degrade their ride comfort and performance in the short-term, and contribute to some health issues in the long-term. This paper presents the latest development and flight test demonstration results of an active seat mount system that is designed to reduce helicopter aircrew WBV levels through active cancellation of the N/rev vibration peaks related to the helicopter main rotor speed. A prototype airworthy hardware of the active seat mount system has been developed based on previous bench-top-test designs to meet airframe integrity requirements for installation and flight testing on the Bell-412 helicopter. Extensive experimental results on human occupants using a shaker table facility and flight demonstrations on the NRC Bell-412 helicopter in representative flight conditions are presented and discussed. The active seat mount system has achieved significant reduction to the occupant WBV levels at the bottom seat cushion interface per ISO2631/MIL-STD-1472G metrics, and also showed effective mitigation to the occupant head vibrations. These investigations demonstrate that the active seat mount technology is a feasible solution for helicopter aircrew WBV mitigation.
This paper describes development and testing of a low-cost device mounted on in the pilot seat of a rotorcraft simulator with the aim of improving the perceived realism of the flight. The device acting vertically from the bottom of the seat is used to communicate changes of acceleration in the vertical direction corresponding to heave movement of the simulated aircraft. A bespoke flight simulator system was developed, featuring modular design and virtual reality (VR) visualisation to enable comparative testing with a full motion system. Objective analyses have shown similarities between the two motion cueing configurations when contrasted with only using visual cues.
The Advanced Helicopter Seating System (AHSS) was started as an effort to evaluate and improve the current state of military rotorcraft seating. The overall goal of the program has been to improve pilot ergonomics and safety through the integration of advanced energy absorption and vibration reduction mechanisms as well as a broad approach to system integration based around updated occupant anthropometrics. An entirely new seating solution has been developed, with intent to integrate with the AH-64 Apache platform for demonstration purposes. The AH-64 development culminated with a series of static tests and dynamic test events to measure the effectiveness of the safety systems integrated on the seat as compared to the legacy AH-64 seating system. While lumbar load data and seat stroke data was obtained, issues with the anthropomorphic test device (ATD) configuration at the 95th male configuration caused some data to be suspect, and premature failure of several components also caused loss of capturing accurate data. Lessons learned are documented in the conclusions. Data and lessons learned from this effort are being used to support a follow-on effort to develop a pilot seat for the UH-60 Black Hawk Platform.
This slash document collects general reference material related to gaseous oxygen system flow requirements and sizing calculations. This document will assist oxygen system equipment designers and operators to establish systems and equipment requirements. The document consists of charts, tables, system schematics, system requirements, and sample calculations for system sizing.
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ABSTRACT Current and future military rotary-wing operations are anticipated to take place more frequently in urban environments. This will increase likelihood for the presence of obstacles along the flight path. In order to maintain safe and effective flights, cueing for obstacle detection and subsequent avoidance is needed. A study was completed to examine the utility of providing obstacle avoidance cues using multimodal cueing. Three different cueing configurations consisting of combinations of visual, auditory, and tactile cues that provided obstacle avoidance information were examined to evaluate their effect on pilots' situational awareness and workload. Pilots performed low-level flights in a dense urban area with obstacles present. Initial support for multimodal displays of obstacle information was found.
This paper reports on the integration, test and evaluation of a Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) system installed on an Airbus H145 (BK117 D-2) civil certified helicopter. The DVE system consists of a LiDAR sensor, an EVS camera and a head-tracked helmet mounted display system (HMD) integrated into the onboard HELIONIX® digital avionics suite. The DVE system combines sensor enhanced and synthetic elements of the external scene and provides an accurate representation of the real world for visual reference and safe manoeuvring in DVE. All systems were prototypically integrated into the H145 demonstrator in a serial-like manner, allowing for a potential serialization of the system. Extensive flight trials were conducted focusing on military as well as on civil HEMS missions and were used to verify the intended function and evaluate installed DVE system performance. The activities described herein are partially performed in the frame of a research project supported by the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw). Between November 2018 and March 2019 the system was successfully deployed in both ground and flight tests.
Helicopters are routinely used to transport crew to and from maritime wind farms. Inclement weather situations and demanding tasks put a high workload on pilots during these missions. This paper describes two test campaigns assessing the utility of a low cost Head-mounted display (HMD) to reduce workload for commercial maritime operations. This system was implemented within the Air Vehicle Simulator (AVES) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Three tasks were flown with experienced offshore pilots, performed in a realistic scenario. Independent subjective assessments of both workload and situational awareness were obtained. Results from the studies show that the overall workload for all missions decreased when using the HMD. Opinions regarding overall benefit and advantages of the system were found to vary between pilots and missions.
Harold F. Pitcairn, American aviation and Autogiro pioneer, died from a single gunshot wound to the head in the late evening hours of April 23, 1960 at the age of 62 after a gala evening at which he presided over a celebration attended by more than 450 guests for his brother's Raymond's 75th birthday. Initially labelled a suicide by the press, Pitcairn's widow Clara declared that "she never wanted to hear another word about the tragedy", while friends and friendly local authorities made the argument, duly reported by Frank Kingston Smith in Legacy of Wings, his devotional Pitcairn biography (subsidized by the Pitcairn family), that the death was accidental because "there was no note, no indication of depression or unhappiness" and "the police investigation disclosed that two shots had been fired; one had penetrated the ceiling directly over the desk in the first floor study, another had struck Pitcairn in the eye" and that "the next morning it was discovered the semi-automatic pistol was defective: when cocked, it had a supersensitive "hair trigger," and it had a faulty disconnector so that it would fire more than one shot at a time, a condition known as "doubling."" The Pitcairn families, prominent and powerful, prevailed upon the local authorities to declare the death accidental and Kingston Smith's 1981account became the de facto authoritative story of the death of Harold F. Pitcairn. With the perspective, however, of six decades, it appears far more likely that Pitcairn's death was a suicide for reasons that were not readily evident, minimized, unappreciated or deliberately ignored at the time to craft a result that met the needs of Clara Pitcairn and her surviving family. These included the fact that while the claim was made that Pitcairn was making his nightly rounds to check on the estate’s ground-level windows (and had been doing so since the Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932), he actually died at his desk; that those in the house only reported a single shot; the 1907 Savage pistol had no reputation for a hair-trigger, and had not evidenced such a flaw in almost three decades of Pitcairn's nightly ritual; that even though Pitcairn had been assured that his almost-decade-long lawsuit against the United States government for Patent infringement of his Autogiro patents was going well, he was concerned about the impact this lawsuit was having on his aged associates who had been called to give depositions and he had voiced the sentiment that "if he had known that he would have to sue the government, he would not have gone into the Autogiro business"; that the lawsuit, itself intended as a vindication of Pitcairn's contribution to aviation was dragging on and would reach its first legal conclusion in 1967, and not finally conclude upon appeal until 1977; and most importantly, those who deny suicide and point to Pitcairn’s state-of-mind, have failed to take into account when the death occurred or ready evidence of his 'state of mind' To fail to see the tragic end of Harold F. Pitcairn is to forget that 29 years and one day earlier, he had been recognized for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year." The memory of that day on the White House back lawn with the President was the high point of his life even as Pitcairn prepared to celebrate his older brother's achievements. The evidence, when marshalled and documented, conclusively points to suicide - a death of an American aviation pioneer before his contributions were vindicated in the largest patent infringement judgement against the United States in history. To fail to see the tragic end of Harold F. Pitcairn is to forget that 29 years earlier, he had been recognized for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America".
This paper presents preliminary results of a pilot-in-the-loop (PIL) study of different cueing designs to reduce pilot workload in rotorcraft shipboard landings. The participants were tasked with flying an approach to touchdown on the deck of an Arleigh Burke Flight IIA class Destroyer under both day visual flight rules (VFR) and night-unaided, zeroillumination conditions. For each condition, the participants were presented with three different cue types. For the day iterations these were a generic military standard heads up display (HUD), a ship fixed tunnel in the sky (tunnel), and a virtual flight lead cueing system (FLCS). The zero-illumination night condition was deemed impossible to land with only the HUD, so it was replaced with a combination of the tunnel and FLCS for the purpose of gaining initial feedback on combining elements of different systems. Terminal landing constraints (location, heading, and impact velocity) were used as measures of pilot performance, the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) survey was used to evaluate perceived pilot workload, and the System Usability Scale (SUS) was used to rate interface and cueing usability. Initial findings showed that pilots viewed the tunnel cueing as having the lowest perceived workload while the FLCS provided the best terminal performance. All types of 3D cueing improved performance when compared to the HUD baseline. The use of 3D cueing also expanded the operational envelope to include zero-illumination conditions. For completeness, the study requires additional subjects, specifically those that have prior shipboard landing experience, as COVID-19 safety precautions paused in-person simulator testing early in the testing period. This body of work represents the next iteration of FLCS research, initially published in Ref. 1.
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