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

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 which 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 multiwaypoint 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. Swenson, Harry N. and Zelenka, Richard E. and Dearing, Munro G. and Hardy, Gordon H. and Clark, Raymond and Davis, Tom and Amatrudo, Gary and Zirkler, Andre Ames Research Center NASA-TM-108837, A-94112, NAS 1.15:108837 RTOP 505-64-36...