Design and Flight Evaluation of an Integrated Navigation and Near-Terrain Helicopter Guidance System for Nighttime and Adverse Weather Operations

Details

• Creators:
  Swenson, Harry N. ; Zelenka, Richard E. ; Dearing, Munro G. ; Hardy, Gordon H. ; Clark, Raymond ; Davis, Tom ; Amatrudo, Gary ; Zirkler, Andre
• Corporate Contributors:
  Ames Research Center ; United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Helicopter pilots
  • Information display systems
  • Head up displays
  • Guidance systems (Aircraft)
  • Computer Aiding for Low Altitude Helicopter Flight (CALAHF)
  • Flight evaluation
  • Helicopter flight test
  • Near-terrain guidance system
  • Trajectory generation algorithm
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.21949/1403330
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  Ames Research Center
• Abstract:
  NASA and the U.S. Army have designed, developed, and flight evaluated a Computer Aiding for Low-Altitude Helicopter Flight (CALAHF) guidance system. This system provides guidance to the pilot for near-terrain covert helicopter operations. It automates the processing of precision navigation information, helicopter mission requirements, and terrain flight guidance. The automation is presented to the pilot through symbology on a helmet-mounted display. The symbology is a "pilot-centered" design that preserves pilot flexibility and authority over the CALAHF system's automation. An extensive flight evaluation of the system has been conducted using the U.S. Army's NUH-60 STAR (Systems Testbed for Avionics Research) research helicopter. The evaluations were flown over a multiway point helicopter mission in rugged mountainous terrain, at terrain clearance altitudes from 300 to 125 ft and airspeeds from 40 to 110 knots. The results of these evaluations showed that the pilots could precisely follow the automation symbology while maintaining a high degree of situational awareness.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/12823/dot_12823_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 491.75 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3e398f67620db802764f46a9f181bc8d48ce036bbd998ccf8713886f5c2a8bc371936c08cfff8a4bbc485858b5bb5a3ab2dbe360dd9dffd3960cfb5246b5a48d