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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 1234.PDF
Sikorsky's HH-60D fuselage mockup shows the uplifted stores support pylons and 230 US gal fuel tanks •';$& z * P^sft^^i iiiiiB ••HCS ' - iM'iiAb^iliiiiiP'-fcitllMBBHPSHiitnjfittt!• '•''.-: • • • V*l^V'WSto& «li|teMu'a ;t ^\*«mMfcM^te^|i ^w^wwwp^^ __ « ^^^^^Si-^^^^fc' a keyboard and his displays for 80 per cent of tasks. The panel comprises four large CRTs with centrally located standby mechanical instruments. The pilot has a primary display of vertical situation (VSD) super imposed on Flir imagery, and a secondary display of horizontal situation (HSD) superimposed on radar or map video. Engine, transmission, flightplan, and fuel- management formats are available on command. Master caution and warning alerts are presented on the VSD, and high lighted caution and advisory warning alerts appear on the HSD. The VSD displays collective and cyclic flight-director commands in conventional "steer-to-the-bug" form. Also presented are current and available power. A power prediction function automatically displays power required at present speed to clear an upcoming obstacle. If this exceeds avail able power, the pilot can either steer round the obstacle, or reduce speed until sufficient power is available. Terrain- following algorithms are also improved over the fixed templates used in Pave Low III. Both pilots have helmet-mounted displays projecting the combined VSD/Flir video. In this mode the Flir turret under the nose is slaved to head position and the infrared image is scaled to match the outside world. A view of the instrument panel is always available through the other eye, and the copilot uses goggles as a backup in case of sudden helmet display failure. Survivor location Dual, spacially separated digital data- buses connect the avionics subsystems. Use of the t553B databus standard allows for the later introduction of the Global Positioning System and the Electronics Survivor Location Equipment (ESLE). The latter will provide range and bearing for up to six survival radios, and will allow flight-director approaches to within 10ft accuracy. The Air Force admits that integration of the Night Hawk avionics has proved to be a more expensive task than first thought. The choice of radar has also pushed up the price bv an estimated $650,000 to $700,000 for the equipment finally selected. The Air Force maintains that the radar chosen, the K-band set under development for the Service's Lantirn F-16/A-10 night nav/attack pod, is the only one available with adequate counter-countermeasures performance. For Night Hawk the Lantirn radar will be modified to provide terrain-avoidance, ground-mapping, and ranging modes. Mounted in the nose, the radar will scan through 60° and is unique in storing a ±15° scan, so that when the helicopter turns to avoid an obstacle there is no interruption of the view ahead, so no unnecessary pull-up commands are gener ated. Night Hawk begins life as a UH-6GA Black Hawk. In the final stages of assembly the airframe is taken off the US Army production line and Air Force modifications are incorporated. SH-60B Seahawk engines and main rotor transmission are fitted. The Seahawk's General Electric T700-401 turboshaft produces 10 per cent more power, meeting the Air Force's mid- mission hover design point. The SH-60B's transmission also features a rotor brake. Fuel capacity is increased by mounting a removable 117 US gal cabin tank forward of the existing fuselage fuel cells. Two jettisonable 230 US gal tanks are carried on modified external stores supports attached to existing fuselage hardpoints. The composite supports are angled upwards to give a clear arc of fire for door- and window-mounted machine guns. A lightweight retractable aerial refuelling probe is attached to the star board side of the lower forward fuselage. Capable of receiving 300 US gal/min from an HC-130 tanker, the composite probe is extended and retracted by fuel pumps. The Seahawk rescue hoist is mounted above the starboard cabin door. The 6001b-capacity variable-speed winch has 225ft of cable and is controlled either from the cockpit or from the cabin, where the crewman has limited control over helicop ter trim on the autopilot-coupled hover. Use of the SH-60B flight control system provides for automatic approach to, and departure from, the hover, plus increased damping in all axes to meet Air Force handling requirements. Rescue cabin Standard cabin configuration is five crew seats and two litters, but this can be changed in less than 90min to three crew and four litters or two crew positions and ten passenger seats. M60 or multibarrel machine guns can be fitted to window and door pintles, covering 85° fore and aft and 70° down to suppress ground fire. Current plans call for the HH-60 airframes to be delivered to IBM's Owego, New York, facility, where the Black Hawk instrument panel will be removed and replaced by the Night Hawk integrated cockpit. This apparently wasteful exercise is a result of IBM and Sikorsky competing against each other for the HH-60D inte gration contract, and might eventually be streamlined along the lines of Seahawk production, where Sikorsky incorporates IBM-supplied equipment during assembly to ease the integration task. The Air Force has already bought 11 UH-60As straight from the US Army line. Nine have been delivered to Eglin AFB, Florida, to begin pilot training. Two have been retained by Sikorsky for conversion to HH-60D prototypes, and work is under way. The first Night Hawk, aircraft Tl, which is scheduled to fly in February 1984, will be instrumented for structural-load flight-tests. The second HH-60D, aircraft T2, will be delivered direct to IBM in May 1984 for installation of the Night Hawk mission system. Tl will follow in March 1985. Development will cost an estimated $168 million, and is to be completed in 1986. The Air Force wants 243 HH-60Ds to support the planned 48 fighter Wings and for covert missions with the Special Operations Forces. No compromise Congress has questioned the $4,600 million estimated programme cost, direc ting the Air Force to come up with some thing more modest. The Service is unwill ing to reduce Night Hawk's capability, although there might be some minor changes to the system outlined here, but might reduce the number of Night Hawks to bring the programme cost down. Combat rescue is an emotive subject, and the value of recovering downed aircrew is difficult to quantify. Each aviator represents a multimillion-dollar investment in training, but in wartime, without reserves of aircraft and the ability to accelerate production to replace losses, there is unlikely to be a replacement aircraft for the rescued airman to fly back into combat. If downed aircrew are effectively lost to combat, particularly in the short, intensive war many envisage in Europe, where is the value in risking more lives in a rescue attempt? The answer may lie in the psychological support that the combat-rescue forces give aircrew, enabling them to perform to the full in the knowledge that, if they are shot down, every attempt will be made to recover them before they are captured. If the combat-rescue mission is valid, and that is for the Air Force to argue and Congress to decide, then Night Hawk is an answer. There may be an element of gold plating in the helicopter's specification, but the enormous risks attached to going alone into hostile territory to rescue a downed aviator from the midst of heavy defences require a sophisticated solution. to FLIGHT Internationa/, 9 July WKI
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