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Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation designed a new advanced technology composite main rotor blade for a growth BLACK HAWK helicopter, now designated the UH-60M. The UH-60M main rotor blade has new airfoils, a larger blade chord, and a swept, tapered, anhedral tip, with a rotor ice protection system (RIPS) similar to that of the UH-60A/L helicopter. The UH-60A/L RIPS control system was retained and the new blades were fitted with heater elements similar in geometry to those of the UH-60A/L main rotor blades, but with the outboard extent of the heater mat 10 inches more inboard than that of the UH-60A/L and the woven wire heater resistance was changed to maintain the same power density as the UH-60A/L. Analyses and S-92A® helicopter artificial and natural icing flight test data show that the increased blade chord, improved airfoils, and advanced blade geometry result a minimal change in BLACK HAWK icing flight characteristics.

A new flight research vehicle, the Rotorcraft-Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL), is being developed by the U.S. Army and NASA at Ames Research Center. The requirements for this new facility stem from a perception of rotorcraft system technology requirements for the next decade together with operational experience with the Boeing Vertol CH-47B research helicopter that was operated as an in-flight simulator at Ames during the past 10 years. Accordingly, both the principal design features of the CH-47B variable-stability system and the flight-control and cockpit-display programs that were conducted using this aircraft at Ames are reviewed. Another U.S. Army helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk, has been selected as the baseline vehicle for the RASCAL. The research programs that influence the design of the RASCAL are summarized, and the resultant requirements for the RASCAL research system are described.

Modern rotorcraft must have the capability to operate in all-weather conditions. Sikorsky Aircraft has conducted icing research and ice protection system development for helicopters over the past 58 years and the pace of that work has accelerated during the past two decades. Sikorsky participated in several helicopter icing flight tests, conducted wind tunnel tests of scale models and full-scale components, tested simulated ice shapes, and developed analytical tools for use in the design, certification, and qualification for flight in icing conditions. Engine inlets, airspeed systems, main rotor droop stops, and windshields are generally protected by thermal anti-icing systems. When rotor ice protection is required, rotors are protected with electrothermal deice systems. The UH-60A BLACK HAWK electrothermal rotor ice protection system, developed in the late 1970s, has been installed in 2400 H-60 helicopters and it remains one of the most effective rotor ice protection systems.

Giving ice the boot Atmospheric icing was for many years one of the majoy threats to aircraft safety- and it potentially still is. Researchers at Dunlop Aviation Ice Protection and Composites continue their development of deicing and anti-icing technologies. The art of wing assembly Airbus Industries investigates new technologies and techniques for improving quality and reducing cost of its wing box assemblies. Affordable engines for small aircraft A look into the new technologies developed for small-aircraft engines as extensions to the cooperative agreements under the NASA General Aviation Propulsion program conclude.

Why are vision systems fundamental and critical to autonomous flight? What are the vision system tasks required for autonomous flight? How can those tasks be approached? It addresses the role of vision systems for autonomous operations and discusses the critical tasks required of a vision system, including taxi, takeoff, en-route navigation, detect and avoid, and landing, as well as formation flight or approach and docking at a terminal or with other vehicles. These tasks are analyzed to develop field of view, resolution, latency, and other sensing requirements and to understand when one sensor can be used for multiple applications. Airspace classifications, landing visibility categories, decision height criteria, and typical runway dimensions are introduced. The book provides an overview of sensors and phenomenology from visible through infrared, extending into the radar bands and including both passive and active systems.