Eurocopter Demonstrates Optionally Piloted EC145 Flights

Eurocopter EC145 Demonstrator Eurocopter successfully completed an unmanned EC145 demonstration flight at Istres, France demonstrating...

Eurocopter EC145 Demonstrator

Eurocopter successfully completed an unmanned EC145 demonstration flight at Istres, France demonstrating its ability to integrate unmanned flight capabilities into its helicopter family.

The optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) demonstration program, used the EC145 helicopter to fly mission that included deployment of an external sling load and a representative observation mission.
EC145 demonstrator is a Eurocopter testbed helicopter with an enhanced dual-duplex four-axis automatic flight control system (AFCS) and the latest navigation systems.
The helicopter is fitted with the plug-in OPV avionics rack in its cabin behind the pilot seats, which contains the data link subsystems.

Unmanned EC145 Cockpit

With this capability fully validated, Eurocopter is poised to expand its OPV flight capabilities to its other medium and heavy-lift helicopters enabling these rotorcrafts to be flown by pilots or in an unmanned mode.
Visibility during the unmanned flights was provided to the ground station via onboard cameras. They were complemented by an external gimbaled camera on the helicopter for infrared and daylight mission imaging.
Eurocopters OPV system was configured to enable uploading of the four-dimensional flight plans to the helicopter via data link from the ground station. The system included an automatic hover-to-land capability in case of major system degradation.
Eurocopter had similar flights performed earlier in April. This unmanned demonstration, along with the previous flights used a four-dimensional flight plan that was uploaded to the helicopter, with its starting and completion points situated on the Istres Air Force Bases Runway 15/33. After an automatic takeoff, the EC145 flew the circuit via multiple pre-programmed waypoints, during which the helicopter performed a mid-route hover to deploy a load from the external sling. The EC145 continued on a return route segment representing a typical observation mission, followed by an automatic landing.
For delivery of the external load, the helicopter entered a planned hover enabling the ground station controller to provide flight control inputs in orienting the EC145 over the drop point. The ground controller then transmitted a command to release load once the helicopter and load were correctly positioned.
The OPV flight capability was developed in an internally-funded Eurocopter program, and was coordinated by a team at the companys Donauworth, Germany facility. Initial tests with a monitoring pilot aboard the EC145 were flown from Donauworth and then at Istres.