• 24 Jun 2024 11:45 AM
• 0

Forum 80: Ideas Earn Their Way

By Frank Colucci
Vertiflite, July/August 2024

The Vertical Flight Society Forum in Montréal considered promising technologies to improve safety, boost performance, cut operating costs and broaden markets. (Top photo: The Forum 80 “Straight Talk from the Top” panel, moderated by Vertiflite senior editor Frank Colucci, gave executive insights into progress by the top five rotorcraft developers. VFS staff photos except where noted.)

Some 1,150 attendees in the Palais des congrès de Montréal for the Vertical Flight Society’s 80th Annual Forum & Technology Display heard government, industry and academic speakers offer ideas to improve the payoff of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The busy exhibit floor centered on a Mirabel factory fresh Bell 505, notably an affordable light helicopter with health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) as standard equipment. Exhibit booths and technical talks showcased other advances in autonomous flight, hybrid-electric propulsion, composite materials and rotorcraft modeling. In her keynote address, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) deputy commander and former Bell CH-146 Griffon pilot Maj. Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet cited Canada’s renewed emphasis on arctic operations and the need for modern technology in both the near-term Griffon cockpit upgrade and Canada’s next Tactical Aviation Capability Set (nTACS) expected in the 2030s. She told the VFS audience, “We need innovative minds and enthusiastic partners.”

The annual “Straight Talk from the Top” panel provided enthusiastic updates on innovative technology from five major western rotorcraft manufacturers. Outgoing VFS board chair and Airbus Helicopters Vice President of Research and Innovation Tomasz Krysinski reported first flight of the Racer high-speed compound helicopter and predicted first flight of the all-electric CityAirbus NextGen multicopter next year. The Airbus stable of technology demonstrators also includes the H130 FlightLab, H145 PioneerLab and DisruptiveLab helicopters used to investigate hybrid and electric propulsion, autonomous flight controls and safety systems, including prognostic data collection. Krysinski told the Forum audience, “Data, Big Data, opens completely new doors to rotorcraft maintenance, especially using artificial intelligence to detect defects in a lot of mechanical parts.”

Leonardo Helicopters Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation Roberto Garavaglia surveyed his company’s growing helicopter portfolio and added that the AW609 tiltrotor, long in test, should gain civil certification this year. He noted that Leonardo is teamed with American Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) developer Bell to offer the NATO Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) a solution based on shared tiltrotor technology. Garavaglia reminded his Montréal audience, “Ultimately, we must do things that we can sell,” and added, “Putting together new technologies and maturing them is going to be expensive… For people and companies with an engineering background, it’s always difficult to decide what not to do, where not to spend the money, despite all the promises you think could happen.”

The US Army decided in February not to spend more money on the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA), and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, dutifully scrubbed compound helicopter images from its Forum booth. Sikorsky president Paul Lemmo contended the FARA mission has not gone away. Lemmo added that his company’s autonomous flight demonstrations can pay off in collaborative uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) teaming (CU-T). CU-T plays in the US Navy’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Maritime Strike replacement for the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter, regional air mobility enabled by the Sikorsky’s HEX hybrid-electric demonstrator and Sikorsky’s rotor-blown wing concept for the DARPA ANCILLARY (AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY) effort (see “On a Wing and a Pair,” pg. 16). Lemmo said a sub-scale HEX should hover in 2025 and noted, “Lower cost and sustainability are going to be important. We obviously envision a family of systems going forward. We also envision highly electrified fleets, maybe not all battery operated, but certainly ones with hybrid-electric powerplants.” Costs are also impacted by diagnostic/prognostic data. With the Army to keep the Black Hawk in production into the 2030s and the Marines to first deploy their new King Stallion in 2026, Sikorsky is talking to both services about ways to exploit the data generated by modern helicopters.

Boeing Defense, Space and Security Vice President of Platform Engineering Dr. Matt Hutchison also underscored the importance of cost-effective readiness in vertical lift. Ironically, he cited the Boeing-Leonardo MH-139 in the US Air Force as an example of cost-effective, dual-use technology, despite the certification delays and budget breaches of the civil-certified, commercial-off-the-shelf military helicopter. Hutchison noted 90% of aircraft cost is incurred post-purchase, and the Boeing Chinook and Apache are promised more modernization by the US Army’s aviation investment rebalance. He said, “We spend a great deal of time and effort continuing to make relevant platforms that have been in service for many years.” Defense markets are meanwhile changing, and the Boeing executive noted, “[There] is a deep desire by a number of countries for indigenous capability. That capability is… for manufacturing and also for engineering and developing their own skills base.”

Bell Textron Canada Vice President Michael Nault gave the Forum audience a highly successful example of international industry when he forecast delivery of the 6,000th Bell helicopter from Mirabel, Québec, later this year. Also significant, he announced the Canadian line had delivered a fly-by-wire (FBW) Model 429 autonomous flight testbed to the Bell flight test research center in Arlington, Texas. Bell will civil-certify FBW on the commercial Model 525 delivered this year and will leverage the technology on the US Army’s FLRAA and possibly the NATO NGRC. Nault also showed ground test video of a folding-rotor aimed at DARPA’s 400 kt (740 km/h) SPRINT—the SPeed and Runway-INdependent technologies X-plane—and concluded, “We want to push the boundaries of speed and payload even further.”

The need for speed and other technologies is not limited to military rotorcraft operators. In a Forum special session on Canadian civil VTOL developments, Cougar Helicopters Director of Flight Operations JJ Gerber described the challenges of intense S-92 operations in brutal weather to shuttle oil workers to platforms more than 200 nm (370 km) from St. John’s, Newfoundland. Cougar moved 26,500 passengers last year, and Gerber said, “It’s doing probably as close to airline work in the helicopter industry as anyone can.” Technicians tap HUMS data after every mission. The helicopter operator also stands on search-and-rescue alert for the oil and gas industry in the Hibernia Basin. Gerber offered, “It’s no good to build a helicopter that requires a lot of servicing and a test flight.” He added, “What matters to us when you design a helicopter is reliability.” Oil exploration is also taking passengers and flight crews in anti-exposure suits up to 280 nm (519 km) offshore, and Gerber concluded, “Speed is the answer.”

Reach and Research
In a Forum special session on Canadian military helicopter requirements, Lt. Col. Rich Morris from the RCAF Directorate of Air Requirements prioritized reach (speed and range), lethality and interoperability as key to future conflicts. He offered, “We need to be able to move quicker just to be able to do what we do.” Speed and range remain central to the US Army’s FLRAA initiative—part of the Pentagon’s overarching FVL initiative—and NATO’s NGRC, both expected in production in the 2030s. Canada likewise envisions a fast, long-ranged nTACS in about the same time frame. Despite the shared desire for greater reach and the appeal of common platforms, Morris conceded, “We don’t know how much an FVL will cost. We don’t know how much NGRC will cost.”

Just how the US Army’s FLRAA and NATO’s notional NGRC mesh with Canadian requirements, schedules and budgets are to be determined. The speedy Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor FLRAA remains in technology maturation and risk reduction pending a Milestone B Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) decision in June. In a special session on US Army vertical lift programs, FLRAA program chief engineer Michelle Gilbert told the Forum audience that Bell is scheduled to deliver a digital prototype in the spring of fiscal year 2025 and begin delivering production Valors in 2030 to equip the first unit with the combat tiltrotor. She broke FLRAA innovations into Increment 1 with fly-by-wire flight controls and modular open system approach (MOSA) to systems integration and Increment 2 with advanced mission systems and greater self-deployment range. Gilbert cautioned, “If you go after too much technology in your initial requirements, it’s too difficult to manage cost.” With the FARA armed scout canceled but uncrewed launched effects (LE) still in development, she added, “Now we’re going to have to go back and look at [putting] FARA capability on FLRAA.”

Another Forum special session on the seven-nation NGRC program set out notional schedules, key attributes and enabling technologies for a new kind of multirole military aircraft. Program manager Cyril Heckel from the NATO Support Program Agency described a 180–270-kt (330–500-km/h) platform able to carry 12–16 troops over more than 900 nm (1,670 km). Though the US Army has no official involvement in NGRC, the competitive procurement is open to companies in all NATO nations. GE Aerospace will conclude its propulsion study for the new NATO rotorcraft this summer, and Lockheed Martin is under contract to define an open avionics system. Dan Newman, now employed by Honeywell but representing the NATO Industry Advisory Group (NIAG), said cybersecurity will be paramount in NGRC and summarized, “Survivability is not something you can bolt on at the end.”

With three concept design contracts expected in 2026, an industry winner should receive a development contract around 2028 or 2029 to support first NGRC deliveries around 2038. The optionally crewed NGRC is expected to integrate an open system architecture and digital interoperability with novel propulsion. Dr. Chana Goldberg of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) told the Forum audience about efforts to apply hybrid-electric technology to a new medium-lift rotorcraft. “We’re looking to leverage advanced air mobility technology.” Goldberg observed that an electrically powered military aircraft big enough for 12–16 troops poses an overly heavy energy storage dilemma, but electrification can have other payoffs. “It’s not just how you design it; it’s how you use it.” NGRC case studies look at electric tail rotors to reduce drive system weight, hybrid-electric economy to extend range and supplemental power to expand the flight envelope, but Goldberg said with refreshing candor, “If you want a ‘net zero’ helicopter, then don’t take off.”

The US Army deputy project manager for aviation turbine engines Robert Sheibley said that—although Sikorsky is ground testing the 3,000 shp-class T901 improved turbine engine on its Raider X—neither of America’s FARA competitive prototypes is likely to ever take-off with the powerful, fuel-saving engine. The turboshaft is still baselined for the Black Hawk and Apache, but US Army program managers gave the Forum audience no other insight into what could make today’s enduring helicopter fleet faster and longer ranged.

A low-rate initial production decision on CH-47F Block II modernization is due in 2025, but cargo helicopters technical division chief Scott Rosengren conceded, “We needed a new [rotor] blade. We failed. We need one soon, but we don’t need 10-, 20-year-old technology.” However, he clarified, “The Army is not officially looking for a new blade.”

Drag reduction and compound helicopter schemes to make the Apache FARA-fast are likewise absent. Though the AH-64E V6.5 software upgrade is underway, MOSA standards to make further improvements faster and cheaper remain in development. According to Sheibley, “Everything we are looking at in the future is centered on open systems… With enduring platforms, it’s not going to happen overnight.”

The US Navy and Air Force presented snapshots of promising VTOL science and emerging technologies at Forum 80. Dr. David Gonzalez, aerodynamics program officer at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) observed, “The Navy is moving toward more autonomous capabilities moored in crewed platforms.” University of Maryland Vertical Lift Center of Excellence (VLRCOE) researcher Prof. Umberto Saetti described ONR-sponsored work on aeromechanical shipboard interactions that could shape advanced flight control laws for crewed and uncrewed aircraft.

Government labs routinely work with university researchers, and Penn State VLRCOE director Prof. Edward Smith noted, that vertical flight “requires design, operation and maintenance of arguably the most complicated machine [human beings have] ever created... and we’re operating it in one of the most challenging tasks in all of aviation.... Landing and engaging with a ship on deck is harrowing.” Smith also noted rotorcraft interior noise imposes readiness and financial burdens in failed pilot hearing exams and hearing aids and reported “black hole” composite panels with integrated divots or depressions have cut noise levels 3 dB in tests. “We think we can do better than that,” concluded Smith.

Noelle Goodeaux, a program manager for the US Air Force’s AFWERX Agility Prime, said her service wants to ensure that the United States remains dominant in the global eVTOL market, while supporting the Biden administration’s goal of being at zero emissions by 2035. AFWERX-sponsored flight testing continues of the Joby S4 all-electric tilt-prop at Edwards Air Force Base in California, while the Vermont Air National Guard hosted the battery-powered Beta Technologies electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) Alia demonstrator and Dannar mobile charging station. Goodeaux said, “One thing we are seeing with the electric and hydrogen-electric aircraft, we are able to save cost versus a helicopter.”

Human-machine interactions are equally intriguing to Canadian researchers. Derek “Duff” Gowanlock, technical lead for military VTOL research and development at Canada’s National Research Center (NRC), said its researchers have conducted a pilot listening effort to gauge noise levels in all Canadian Forces helicopters, and he described an active helicopter seat mount that cut vibration 62% and eliminated the time limit on daily aircrew exposure. The NRC Bell 412 fly-by-wire research helicopter flew autonomous resupply missions at Yuma Proving Ground last year, and NRC researchers will wrap-up their Canadian vertical lift autonomy demonstration this year to begin follow-on investigations to help the RCAF acquire and develop advanced autonomous flight capabilities. Transport Canada is meanwhile developing civil certification criteria for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft.

NRC work on integrated-reality flight simulation aims at modeling the shipboard environment accurately to reduce the time and cost of real-world flight testing needed to establish ship–helicopter operating limits. All around the Forum, there was talk of improved computer modeling promised savings in rotorcraft development. Nikolsky lecturer Dr. Brahmananda Panda traced rotorcraft aeromechanics modeling at Boeing and told the Forum audience, “We can rely more on analysis to reduce the cost of wind tunnel and flight testing.” Sikorsky engineer Darryl Toni was recognized with the VFS Klemin Award for his work on rotorcraft structural analysis and integrity.

On the Forum exhibit floor, Continuum Dynamics Inc. CEO Glenn Whitehouse gave a booth-side presentation on mid-fidelity design tools embedded in the widely used CHARM comprehensive code. The enhanced toolset can now generate wake predictions with accuracy close to that of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) but at one-third the cost. The tools are especially important in the development of eVTOL aircraft with complex flow interactions of multicopters, tilt-props and other AAM configurations.

Charging Ahead
In a Forum special session on civil VTOL research and development, NASA revolutionary vertical lift technology (RVLT) project manager Dr. Noah Schiller (see “Leadership Profile,” pg. 90) reminded the audience that AAM encompasses many missions. He noted that the high-density environment around urban air mobility will make UAM vehicles the hardest for the public to accept. “It’s the next generation of air vehicles that’s going to make advanced air mobility more accessible,” said Schiller. The RVLT vehicle safety initiative consequently aims at guidelines to improve propulsion reliability. NASA Glenn Research Center has an advanced reconfigurable electrified aircraft lab (AREAL) to test inverters, high-voltage generators and electric motors for electrified AAM applications, and NASA Langley Research Center works to deliver validated and documented software tools to determine vehicle noise and performance. A new handling and ride qualities facility at NASA uses a virtual reality headset and motion-base simulator to validate handling and ride quality tools. “We’re going to be looking at how the view out the window affects passenger perceptions,” explained Schiller. “We don’t want people to come off the vehicle feeling sick to their stomachs.”

The special session on progress in eVTOL provided an update on AAM and the startup companies bringing it to market. Beta Technologies Chief Operating Officer Blaine Newton reported on cargo demonstrations of the battery-powered Alia eCTOL demonstrator aircraft for United Parcel Service in Louisville, Kentucky, and for the US Air Force at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. “The driver here is not that it’s green,” said Newton. “The driver is that it’s reliable and effective.” The Vermont-based aircraft maker now has conventional and vertical takeoff and landing prototypes of its aircraft in test, and the lift-plus-cruise demonstrator has transitioned from vertical to wing-borne cruising flight with a pilot at the controls (see “eVTOL Leaders Begin Transitions,” pg. 70). Beta projects civil certifications by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2025 or 2026. Archer deputy chief engineer Kerry Manning expects his company to fly a representative prototype of the 180-kt (330-km/h) Midnight tilt-prop air taxi in 2025 and reported the first production example was already in assembly.

Wisk Aero is committed to supervised autonomy to keep AAM cheap by having a single ground operator oversee several pilotless passenger-carrying air taxis. Senior aircraft development director Guillaume Beachamp described the progress made to date with his company’s four-seat, 12-propeller electric air taxi. The Boeing subsidiary has its Gen 5 aircraft in flight tests and expects Gen 6 to be certified for commercial operations under Part 135 rules. Vertical Aerospace Vice President Eric Samson discussed the remotely piloted crash of its first VX-4 all-electric air taxi demonstrator and told the Forum audience a second prototype with next-generation propeller blades will begin flight tests this year. He said, “It takes a while to deliver a new means of transportation.” Jaunt Air Mobility CEO Martin Peryea said his company aims to use traditional Part 29 airworthiness standards to certify its slowed-rotor concept in Canada in 2028 for service in 2029, and expects his battery-powered, FBW rotorcraft to be up to 20 dB quieter than helicopters with comparable safety. Peryea estimated operating costs at $606 per flight hour, better than 40% less than a modern light helicopter. He nevertheless told the VFS audience, “eVTOL will never replace the helicopter… There will always be a space for that mission.”

Showcasing the Future
In Forum special sessions and on the exhibit floor, speakers and exhibits spotlighted technologies for AAM and more familiar forms of vertical flight. On the exhibit floor, propulsion developer VerdeGo Aero’s booth had a mockup of the company’s VH-3-185 integrated heavy-fuel, hybrid-electric powerplant that promises a range of eVTOL aircraft four-to-six times greater than batteries alone. In a special session on the challenges of vertical flight, John Scott from Piasecki Aircraft made a compelling case for hydrogen fuel cells in his company’s hybrid-electric PA-890 compound helicopter. He told the audience a flightworthy 660-kW system is being planned for testing in 2026 (see “Hydrogen Begins to Take Off,” pg. 66), backed by AFWERX funding. The company is also testing a smaller system on a two-seat German edm Aerotec coaxial helicopter, which it hopes to fly in September.

Mikaël Cardinal from Forum 80 banquet sponsor Unither Bioelectronics said his company is now ground-testing a Robinson R44 converted to run on liquid hydrogen fuel cells, with plans to fly it this summer. Piasecki conducted a study for the US Department of Energy on the pros and cons of converting a Robinson R44 to batteries or fuel cells using gaseous or liquid hydrogen, with liquid hydrogen having the best business case.

Sylvain Alarie, vice president of Swiss autonomy software developer Daedalean, focused on pilot situational awareness and offered a computer vision solution to assist pilots with navigation, traffic detection and landing in visual meteorological conditions. The Piloteye system is being certified first on the Robinson R44 helicopter. Ben Frank of Rotor Technologies Inc. detailed the business case for his company’s R550X, an autonomous R44 for crop dusting, firefighting and other missions. He explained, “When you take the crew out, you get a lot more payload.”

The Bernard Lindenbaum award for the best historical paper at Forum 80 recognized Sundiata Cowels for his study of the forgotten dirigible helicopter, an eminently unsuccessful effort in 1941 to lift an underpowered aircraft with over-wing containers full of buoyant helium. The vertical lift industry is still characterized by innovative ideas. On the Forum 80 exhibit floor, Austrian air mobility company CycloTech showed a model of its compact, electrically powered air taxi with thrust-vectoring cyclo-rotors for vertical takeoff and agile handling in crowded urban settings. CEO Hans-Georg Kinsky told a Forum special session, “It gives you mobility you can’t achieve with conventional rotor systems.” He concluded, “For every technology, there is a use case. The key is bringing all of them together at the right time.”

Photo albums of the invited speakers, awards, exhibit hall displays and other aspects of Forum 80 are available in the VFS Vertical Flight Photo Gallery at www.gallery.vtol.org/albums.