fly-by-wire
 

Does anybody know of a fully fly-by-wire helicopter out there? (Or know anything about the development of one?) I've heard that BAE is developing one from a friend, and I just want to know if its been done before...:confused:

RAH-66 Comanche

Fly By Wire
 

NH-90, The FBW S-92 is in development. Sikorsky flew a FBW S-76 (Shadow) 15 years ago.

Are either of those fully fly-by-wire though? ( ie does the onboard comp make corrections for you?)

Chinook? .

As far as i know, RAH-66 is fully FBW, Apache only in case of emergency ie. damaged control system, there was a Bolkow 105 that served as a testbed.

Kawasaki have a fully FBW BK117 at their factory. Sort of a reddish pink colour. From memory, the cylic was mounted on the armrest of the P1 seat.

That BO105 has been replaced with an EC135 flown by the German Flighttest department/

This one?

Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt

NH90 is the only helicopter in production today with full flybywire system as far I know.

Aser is correct, but there is FBW and then there is real FBW. The NH-90 has a FBW system, although it has two digital lanes and two analog lanes, so it can only do what an analog computer can do (basic damping and such).

The Comanche system was fully digital, and had advanced sensors and control laws that changed the way the controls work. Literally, the aircraft flew with groundspeed control and the stick was used to command more speed. Big change from attitude control as we are all used to it (and as NH-90 still has). Non-pilots could fly Comanche while doing precise hover and target enganement maneuvers, and little outside reference was necessary.

That's no fun... computer sim, a really bad one :(

ok, that pretty much answers my question I think - the commanche was the only "true" fbw system it seems...thanks for all your help!:D

The new EC135 of DLR/Germany ( D-HFHS ) uses "Fly by Light" Tecnologie instead of "Fly by Wire", that means, that optical fibers are used to transmit the signals to the actuators.
The BO105 crashed several Years ago near Stendal/Germany, the Crew was killed.

While not helicopters, the vertical lift BA-609 and V-22 tiltorotors are fly by wire and the Erica tilt wing will be fly by wire.

Sikorsky had a flying donut rotorcraft called Cypher in the early 90's. Not only FBW but also made some pretty impressive autonomous piloting decisions on its own.

You didn't mention it had to be manned !

Cheers Skadi.

Here's another V-22 fly-by-wire

As HOSS 1 says;
"You didn't mention it had to be manned !" :ok:


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A little more serious;

FBW for the S-92
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROTORCRAFT FLY-BY-WIRE TECHNOLOGY

An unmanned V-22. Now that is a step in the right direction, speaking safety. Just don't fly it over my house.
Sikorsky is also featuring FBW on its new X2. Read it here:http://www.sikorsky.com/file/popup/0,9604,1887,00.pdf
And, if we are counting UAVs, there is also the Northrup Grumman Firescout. I think the airframe is built around Schweizer 333 components.
-- IFMU