havoc
26th Oct 2006, 23:55
Military aims to fix helicopter brownout By JAMES HANNAH, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 26, 4:35 AM ET
As the military chopper prepared to land in the New Mexican desert during a nighttime training exercise, gunner Paul Bratcher and the rest of the crew were suddenly hit by helicopter brownout.
The rotors began to kick up sand that blocked the landing zone from view. By the time the ground appeared, the helicopter was coming in nearly sideways and the crew had to act quickly to right the aircraft.
"It's like between standing in a sandblaster and swimming blindly in mud," Bratcher said. "Right now, there is nothing out there that is see-through technology."
However, researchers think they have come up with the next best thing — a camera-computer system that helps serve as the helicopter's eyes and guides it to the ground.
Brownout has bedeviled helicopter pilots, particularly special operations units, which often try to land clandestinely in Iraq and Afghanistan and quickly deploy.
In January, the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base began working with Los Angeles-based Applied Mines Inc. to come up with a solution to the brownout problem.
Their design uses a high-resolution camera on the nose of the helicopter to take a photo of the landing zone about 50 to 100 feet from the ground, before the dust kicks up. When it's dark, the photo is taken during a flash of infrared light invisible to the naked eye to avoid alerting adversaries on the ground.
The photographic image is then transmitted to an onboard computer, which tracks the position of the helicopter as the chopper descends and changes the image accordingly. Flight engineers watching the changing image are able to guide the pilots to the ground, alerting them if they are about to land in a ravine or on a boulder.
"It's a very simple idea," said Alok Das, the rapid-reaction team leader at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., which also worked on the project. "It knows where the helicopter is."
The military's goal is to keep the cost of the camera-computer system at about $150,000 per helicopter. A prototype was tested on a commercial helicopter in the Mojave Desert in the spring, and researchers are gearing up to test it on an MH-53 military helicopter in December.
The technology could find itself being used in Iraq and Afghanistan by summer, Das said.
The system is not a solution for every situation. For example, if something moves into the landing zone in the few seconds between the time the photo is taken and when the helicopter lands, it won't show up on the computer screen.
"And if you have a good sandstorm going on, this technology isn't going to help you," Das added.
But Bratcher, who is a staff analyst for Air Force Special Operations Command, said the system is a big step forward in overcoming the brownout problem.
"This will save lives," he said.
Thu Oct 26, 4:35 AM ET
As the military chopper prepared to land in the New Mexican desert during a nighttime training exercise, gunner Paul Bratcher and the rest of the crew were suddenly hit by helicopter brownout.
The rotors began to kick up sand that blocked the landing zone from view. By the time the ground appeared, the helicopter was coming in nearly sideways and the crew had to act quickly to right the aircraft.
"It's like between standing in a sandblaster and swimming blindly in mud," Bratcher said. "Right now, there is nothing out there that is see-through technology."
However, researchers think they have come up with the next best thing — a camera-computer system that helps serve as the helicopter's eyes and guides it to the ground.
Brownout has bedeviled helicopter pilots, particularly special operations units, which often try to land clandestinely in Iraq and Afghanistan and quickly deploy.
In January, the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base began working with Los Angeles-based Applied Mines Inc. to come up with a solution to the brownout problem.
Their design uses a high-resolution camera on the nose of the helicopter to take a photo of the landing zone about 50 to 100 feet from the ground, before the dust kicks up. When it's dark, the photo is taken during a flash of infrared light invisible to the naked eye to avoid alerting adversaries on the ground.
The photographic image is then transmitted to an onboard computer, which tracks the position of the helicopter as the chopper descends and changes the image accordingly. Flight engineers watching the changing image are able to guide the pilots to the ground, alerting them if they are about to land in a ravine or on a boulder.
"It's a very simple idea," said Alok Das, the rapid-reaction team leader at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., which also worked on the project. "It knows where the helicopter is."
The military's goal is to keep the cost of the camera-computer system at about $150,000 per helicopter. A prototype was tested on a commercial helicopter in the Mojave Desert in the spring, and researchers are gearing up to test it on an MH-53 military helicopter in December.
The technology could find itself being used in Iraq and Afghanistan by summer, Das said.
The system is not a solution for every situation. For example, if something moves into the landing zone in the few seconds between the time the photo is taken and when the helicopter lands, it won't show up on the computer screen.
"And if you have a good sandstorm going on, this technology isn't going to help you," Das added.
But Bratcher, who is a staff analyst for Air Force Special Operations Command, said the system is a big step forward in overcoming the brownout problem.
"This will save lives," he said.