Flight trials with the Mission Flight Aids of NH90 TTH

The Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) is one of two NH90 versions which are being developed under a contract of the NATO agency, NAHEMA, representing France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The NH90 helicopter has been under development since 1992 and made its maiden flight in Dec. 1995. In 2000 Portugal joined the program. In the year 2004 the first production helicopter will be delivered to NAHEMA. A presentation of the mission flight trials and specific mission equipment will be given to show the status of this development. The mission system provides a high degree of flexibility due to architectural design and SW-layout and includes an Obstacle Warning System (OWS) as a retrofit. It may be adapted to different missions by easy changes of its configuration. Additionally the present development also makes provision for further extensions to more specialized missions which its vast cabin allows. For the first time a transport helicopter is equipped with highly sophisticated mission flight aids which are part of the mission system. These mission flight aids provide the helicopter with an effective capability for day, night and adverse weather conditions. This is especially the case with the Vertical Situation Aids (VSA) which consist of a modern Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR), see Figs. 1 and 3, and a visor-projecting binocular Helmet Mounted Sight/Display (HMS/D), see Fig. 7, which includes Image Intensifier Tubes (IITs). These mission equipments are highly integrated to give the pilots an online FLIR or IIT presentation projected onto the HMS/D's visor overlaid by symbology. This allows for a “looking-ahead“ capability. This modern Pilot Vision Systems (PVS) has day and night flight capability with two different type of sensors: FLIR and IIT. The IITs are integrated into the binocular helmet and the FLIR is installed into the nose of the helicopter. The helmet Line of Sight (LOS) is measured by an electro-magnetic tracking system which provides an output to steer the FLIR-platform. Two binocular HMS/Ds, one for the pilot and one for the co-pilot, are used in the NH90 cockpit of the TTH. The results of the flight trials with the NH90-TTH will be presented at the end of this paper.