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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 3048.PDF
y greets 1,000th Black Hawk Sikorsky's "ultimate Black Hawk" is the MH-60K, under development for the US Army's special operations forces US Arm: by Julian Moxon in Stratford The US Army took delivery of the 1,000th Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter last week in celebrations laid on by Sikorsky at its Stratford, Connecticut, base. "We're look ing forward to the next thou sand, and, with any luck, another one after that," said company president Gene Buck ley. The Black Hawk programme accounts for around half of Sikorsky's business, and the latest projections see the aircraft in its many forms remaining in production well into the next century. The US Army's Aviation Modernisation Plan already calls for a total of 2,253 UH-60s, up from the original 1,107 machines. Derivatives for the Army and other US Services, plus those sold abroad, will add considerably to that number. Sikorsky is about to begin a four-year development prog ramme aimed at returning to the Black Hawk the perfor mance the original UH-60A had when it entered service almost exactly ten years and 900,000 flight-hours ago. Since then, the UH-60 has grown considerably in stature with the Army, has found work in the US Air Force and Navy—and gained around 2,0001b of payload weight in the process. The UH-60M Advanced Black Hawk will feature the higher-power General Electric T700-701C turboshaft as stan dard, new all-composite main rotor blades, digital avionics, and larger internal fuel tanks. Two prototypes will be built and flight-tested, leading to service introduction of the new model by late 1992. (Introduction of the T700-701C will begin next year, Black Hawks so powered being designated UH-60Ls.) Sikorsky is also moving ahead with development of what it terms the "ultimate" Black Hawk, the special operations MH-60K. The Army has an initial requirement for 22 -60Ks, and potentially for a further 38. The company was awarded an $82-8 million, 38-month development con tract by the Army in January and expects to fly the first and only prototype in 1990. The special operations Black Hawk will have a four-screen "glass cockpit" (denied the UH-60M in the interests of economy), all the the -60M's performance features, and a sophisticated avionics package. This will include night vision equipment, a forward-looking infrared (Flir) sensor, terrain- following and terrain-avoidance radar, secure command, control, and communications equipment, and various survivability features. Avionics integration is being carried out by IBM, which is also respon- Black Hawl Powering the UH-60M is General Electric's uprated T700-701C turboshaft, which beat off the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM.322 team in May, ensuring GE dominance on the Black Hawk for at least five years. The new all-composite UH- 60M main rotor is the result of an advanced rotor technology (ART) programme being run jointly by Sikorsky and Boeing. The two are partners in the LHX light helicopter develop ment effort, but the ART deal, according to Sikorsky, is direc ted specifically at the UH-60. The principal change to the UH-60 blade profile is an 11 per cent chord increase to convert the extra engine power into more lift. Sikorsky is also beef ing up the rotor hub and intro ducing a new onboard track and balance system that greatly simplifies blade tuning by the pilot. Currently, this requires an hour's test flying with special sible for integrating an identical package into the larger Boeing MH-47 Chinook special oper ations aircraft. Sikorsky is refurbishing its UH-60 production facility at Stratford, which, in the words of one company spokesman, has become "worn out" after ten years of continual high-rate operation. Computerised inven tory control and other tech niques for reducing production costs will be introduced in the equipment attached, and subsequent time-consuming adjustments. Pilots will now be able to re-tune the rotor system after operational missions by following printed instructions presented by the system. UH-60M avionics improve ments are built around a 1553B digital databus, a new automatic flight control system, and an integrated navigation/com munications system. While cockpit instrumentation re mains largely the same, the databus, says Sikorsky, renders the Black Hawk "upwardly mobile for new equipment". The UH-60M also receives better aircraft survivability equipment for weapons management. Internal fuel tanks at the rear of the cabin will be 15 per cent larger, bringing a 10 per cent range increase. To balance the extra weight, the forward fuse lage is stretched 12in ahead of the gunner's location. hope of bringing the unit price of the more advanced UH-60M below that of the UH-60A (for which the Army currently pays $3-4 million before it adds a further $2 million-worth of Government-furnished equip ment). The new facilities should also solve the increasing tangle of paperwork needed to keep track of the numerous UH-60 derivatives, all of which come off the same line as the basic aircraft. A rare sight at Sikorsky last week was one of the nine VH-60 executive transport helicopters that will be used by the US Marines for ferrying the Presi dent and other high-level Government officials around the Washington D.C. area during crises. The VH-60 is threat-hardened, and fitted with advanced navigation and com munications equipment, as well as a weather radar mounted in a radome forward of the cockpit. Also on show at Stratford was one of the 66 EH-60 Quick Fix electronic-warfare aircraft oper ated by the Army. The last of these was delivered in September. • The US Army is to spend $175 million to harden its UH-60s against electro magnetic interference (EMI). Concerns about the aircraft's susceptibility to EMI in the battlefield arose following uncommanded stabilator move ment in a UH-60 when it flew close to a broadcasting tower in West Germany last year. The aircraft will be brought up to an EMI tolerance of 200 V/m the same level as already exists in the Navy's SH-60B Seahawks. revitalised 6 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 22 October 1988
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