Tim Ripley
Landing on moving ships and oil rigs is now a lot easier thanks to a new navigation system developed by the UK's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA).
DERA's Integrated Recovery System incorporating High Integrity GPS Guidance Enhanced Receiver (HIGGER) has proved successful in recent trials.
The system was tested using a Eurocopter AS 365 Dauphin helicopter and the Royal Navy's Type 23 frigate HMS Sutherland.
"The safe and covert recovery of a helicopter onto a moving ship in all weather conditions, day or night, without the use of radar or detectable communications, has been the aim of extensive research at DERA," says DERA spokeswoman Joanna Sale.
"The system that DERA has subsequently developed, known as SAILS (Ship Aircraft Integrated Landing System), is designed to continually extend current ship helicopter operations.
"The DERA system offers key solutions to the numerous problems and dangers of landing a helicopter onto a ship particularly in adverse weather conditions including poor visibility, high winds and high sea states," she adds.
"One of the main elements is the GPS-based guidance system that incorporates the HIGGER on both aircraft and ship and transfers the information by means of a signature-managed data link.
"This provides a robust, highly accurate positioning system which cannot be detected outside a specific range."
SAILS is integrated with the helicopter automatic flight management and control system through a new recovery mode. This can be selected by the pilot at any time and navigates the helicopter back to the estimated ship location and within range of the ship's data link.
A Hover Positioning System (HPS) is also provided which uses thermal image processing techniques to provide precise positioning of the aircraft over the flight deck.
This is required to ensure that the helicopter lands on the current landing spot and can be quickly secured before deck motion increases.
Source: Flight Daily News