Development and Design of an Individual Blade Control System for the Sikorsky CH-53G Helicopter

In 1995 ZF Luftfahrttechnik GmbH (ZFL) started to cooperate with the German Army to develop an Individual Blade Control (IBC) experimental system for application to the Sikorsky CH-53G and conduct flight tests in order to investigate the potential of IBC to improve the dynamic performance on this helicopter type. Based on the experience with the design of several IBC systems for different applications, ZFL has designed and manufactured all major hardware components as well as control electronics and algorithms for the system. This paper discusses the IBC hardware designed and the currently running test and qualification procedure prior to first flight tests. After a description of the experimental system an outlook for the development of production version IBC retrofit kits will be given.