BK 117 D-HBMT: experimental rotor system?
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BK 117 D-HBMT: experimental rotor system?
Heyho,
I honestly wish the internet had been around for longer, there's just so much stuff I'd love to do research on, but just can't find anything on the web.
Anyway, I recently stumbled upon this picture below and honestly, I have no idea what this is supposed to be. It looks like some sort of four-bladed flybar, but why would you need this on a rigid rotor? If anyone knows more about this helicopter, I'd greatly appreciate some enlightenment
Image source: BK117 - Hubschrauber - Helicopter
Thanks!
Jonas
I honestly wish the internet had been around for longer, there's just so much stuff I'd love to do research on, but just can't find anything on the web.
Anyway, I recently stumbled upon this picture below and honestly, I have no idea what this is supposed to be. It looks like some sort of four-bladed flybar, but why would you need this on a rigid rotor? If anyone knows more about this helicopter, I'd greatly appreciate some enlightenment
Image source: BK117 - Hubschrauber - Helicopter
Thanks!
Jonas
I googled IABG and they are an "analysis and test facility for the aviation industry" according to Wikipedia.
I'd guess the item fitted to the main rotor head on that BK117 is possibly a device to load the rotor-head up with a projected lifetime's worth of fatigue and stress in a relatively short time period for test purposes. My other guess would be that it was a device to cancel out vibration but it seems IABG are more concerned with testing the various stresses on components. It doesn't look like the aircraft is fitted with an air data boom so it is possibly a device only for ground-runs.
I could be completely incorrect too!
500 Fan.
I'd guess the item fitted to the main rotor head on that BK117 is possibly a device to load the rotor-head up with a projected lifetime's worth of fatigue and stress in a relatively short time period for test purposes. My other guess would be that it was a device to cancel out vibration but it seems IABG are more concerned with testing the various stresses on components. It doesn't look like the aircraft is fitted with an air data boom so it is possibly a device only for ground-runs.
I could be completely incorrect too!
500 Fan.
It looks like some sort of four-bladed flybar, but why would you need this on a rigid rotor?
And the 117 grew like Topsy from the 105 so..............
Maybe an attempt to get rid of the electronic SAS?
Look up the Lockheed Cheyenne and see how well that flew with a Rigid Rotor and a Stab bar. Youtube has some pretty good movies about it. Impressive.
I am guessing that when they did the "stress analysis" on the Cheyenne though they probably crapped themselves or back then didn't know enough to be concerned!
Here you go...
Heliradar: the pilot's eye for flights in adverse weather conditions
Heliradar: the pilot's eye for flights in adverse weather conditions
In 1992 Eurocopter Deutschland and Daimler-Benz Aerospace started a research program to investigate the feasibility of a piloting radar based on the so-called ROSAR technology: HELIRADAR. While available radar instruments are not capable of guiding a helicopter pilot safely under poor visibility conditions due to lack of resolution and lack of height information, ROSAR technology, a Synthetic Aperture Radar based on ROtating antennas, has been the promise to overcome these deficiencies. Based on ROSAR technology HELIRADAR has been designed to provide a video-like image whose resolution is good enough to safely guide a helicopter pilot under poor visibility conditions to the target destination. To yield very high resolution a similar effect as for Synthetic Aperture Radar systems can be achieved by means of a rotating antenna. This principle is especially well suited for helicopters, since it allows for a stationary carrier platform. Additional rotating arms with antennas integrated in their tips are mounted on top of the rotating rotor head. While rotating, the antenna scans the environment from various visual angles without assuming a movement of the carrier platform itself. The complete transmitter/receiver system is fixed mounted on top of the rotating axis of the helicopter. The antennas are mounted at the four ends of a cross and rotate at the same speed as the rotor. The received radar signals are transferred through the center of the rotor axis down into the cabin of the helicopter, where they are then processed in the PolyCluster type high performance digital signal processor.
© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Last edited by Senior Pilot; 9th Feb 2016 at 20:33. Reason: Add quote
Well flog me with a warm lettuce!
Helicopters set for all weathers
Who would have thunk? Looks like it died naturally after the arrival of synthetic vision and the EUR 400,000.00 price tag!!
Helicopters set for all weathers
Who would have thunk? Looks like it died naturally after the arrival of synthetic vision and the EUR 400,000.00 price tag!!
HeliRadar Technologies is launching development of a rotating synthetic aperture radar (ROSAR) for helicopters, which it claims will "revolutionise" the market by giving commercial operators a true all-weather capability.
The new company has been spun-off by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa), which was due to become part of EADS on 10 July, and its 40%-owned helicopter subsidiary Eurocopter, to take over the German manufacturer's ROSAR patents and raise the estimated DM40 million ($20 million) needed to bring the product to market.
HeliRadar founder and managing director Hans Thilo Langer claims the rotor hub-mounted radar system is designed to provide the pilot with a synthetic image of the outside world, enabling operations under "nearly every meteorological condition". To detect obstacles and highlight them on a cockpit display, "intelligent" software algorithms will be used.
"We believe that, in future, we can fly in the same way as fixed-wing aircraft under instrument flight rules [IFR]/Cat III, but you have to develop it step by step," says Langer.
"We think we will ask for certification down to 300m [980ft] visibility, or perhaps 250m, to give everybody a chance to get confident with the system," he adds.
Langer says nearly one-third of the development funds has been raised, including a German Government pledge to provide DM12.5 million from the federal aerospace research budget. Langer owns 50% of HeliRadar, while Belgian digital signal processing specialist Eonic Systems has a one-third share.
Langer expects venture capitalists to invest in the project once a working demonstrator has been produced, while EADS and Eurocopter are expected to take small stakes. The company is considering an initial public offering.
Certification of the ROSAR is set for mid-2003 and list price is expected to be DM550,000-750,000. Langer says Eurocopter has committed to become the launch customer, although he also hopes that competing manufacturers such as Bell and Sikorsky will include the system on new-build aircraft.
Potential sales are projected at DM250 million a year, mostly from the retrofit market. "We will be really penetrating the market from 2004," says Langer. He believes the project can reach break-even by 2006.
Full-scale development work is to get under way from September when the new company will establish its headquarters at Altenburg in eastern Germany.
The real-time signal processing element will require an array of processors from Eonic Systems capable of performing 14 billion operations a second (14 gigaflop), says Langer. A prototype containing 112 processors has been built.
The radar antennae, each around 1.3m in length, are mounted between each blade and rotate at the same speed as the main rotor. A mock-up has already been flight tested on a BK117 helicopter.
HeliRadar Technologies is expected to be renamed 3DRadar Vision later this year.
The new company has been spun-off by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa), which was due to become part of EADS on 10 July, and its 40%-owned helicopter subsidiary Eurocopter, to take over the German manufacturer's ROSAR patents and raise the estimated DM40 million ($20 million) needed to bring the product to market.
HeliRadar founder and managing director Hans Thilo Langer claims the rotor hub-mounted radar system is designed to provide the pilot with a synthetic image of the outside world, enabling operations under "nearly every meteorological condition". To detect obstacles and highlight them on a cockpit display, "intelligent" software algorithms will be used.
"We believe that, in future, we can fly in the same way as fixed-wing aircraft under instrument flight rules [IFR]/Cat III, but you have to develop it step by step," says Langer.
"We think we will ask for certification down to 300m [980ft] visibility, or perhaps 250m, to give everybody a chance to get confident with the system," he adds.
Langer says nearly one-third of the development funds has been raised, including a German Government pledge to provide DM12.5 million from the federal aerospace research budget. Langer owns 50% of HeliRadar, while Belgian digital signal processing specialist Eonic Systems has a one-third share.
Langer expects venture capitalists to invest in the project once a working demonstrator has been produced, while EADS and Eurocopter are expected to take small stakes. The company is considering an initial public offering.
Certification of the ROSAR is set for mid-2003 and list price is expected to be DM550,000-750,000. Langer says Eurocopter has committed to become the launch customer, although he also hopes that competing manufacturers such as Bell and Sikorsky will include the system on new-build aircraft.
Potential sales are projected at DM250 million a year, mostly from the retrofit market. "We will be really penetrating the market from 2004," says Langer. He believes the project can reach break-even by 2006.
Full-scale development work is to get under way from September when the new company will establish its headquarters at Altenburg in eastern Germany.
The real-time signal processing element will require an array of processors from Eonic Systems capable of performing 14 billion operations a second (14 gigaflop), says Langer. A prototype containing 112 processors has been built.
The radar antennae, each around 1.3m in length, are mounted between each blade and rotate at the same speed as the main rotor. A mock-up has already been flight tested on a BK117 helicopter.
HeliRadar Technologies is expected to be renamed 3DRadar Vision later this year.
Wouldn't have expected this thing to be a radar though. Everyday's a school day 
it looks like the radar blades have a little bit of a pitch,
thus possible contribution to lift, thus flapping.
so much for the radar picture quality?
in 2003 14 GFLOP of processing power, not bad, definitely in the instrument bay, today 50GFLOP would fit in the size of a smartphone box, and inside the rotor head.
Bluetooth the information down, get the energy from a small hub mounted generator.
I can see the headline yet: "The rotor head is getting a brain"
thus possible contribution to lift, thus flapping.
so much for the radar picture quality?
in 2003 14 GFLOP of processing power, not bad, definitely in the instrument bay, today 50GFLOP would fit in the size of a smartphone box, and inside the rotor head.
Bluetooth the information down, get the energy from a small hub mounted generator.
I can see the headline yet: "The rotor head is getting a brain"
