Training Center For Helo Pilots Hosts Helo With No Pilot
The home of the US Army's aviation branch, and the training
center for all the services' rotary-wing aviators, just hosted two
rare events: a 50th anniversary ceremony and a 2-day demonstration
of a helicopter with no pilot at all.
The 50th Anniversary of Ft. Rucker was celebrated by the Army
Aviation community past and present with the dedication of a new
simulator building, Warrior Hall, which will ultimately house 38
full-motion flight simulators (and could hold up to 59 of them). 23
have been installed already, and the first flight students will
train on them starting November 7th. But the buzz at Rucker was
less about the post's half-century record of training helicopter
pilots, and more about the helicopter that was demonstrated with
not pilot on board at all.
The Anniversary was an excuse and opportunity for the Northrop
Grumman Corporation to conduct a demo of its MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV
in front of the assembled Army brass and various luminaries of Army
aviation, thousands of Aviation Branch soldiers and family members,
and local luminaries at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. The photo with
green trees in the background was taken at this demonstration.
Northrop Grumman was assisted in this task by the U.S. Army's
Airworthiness Development and Test Center at Ft. Rucker. The
demonstrations took place Oct. 21 and 22, and showed some of what
the MQ-8 can do. Army leaders don't envision the small drone as
replacing manned helicopters across the board; its particular role
is to conduct battlefield area reconnaissance, including in
conditions where exposure to enemy fire makes it too hazardous to
risk a manned helicopter.
Brigadier General E.J. Sinclair, commanding general of the
Army's Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, spoke enthusiastically about
the demonstration. "Fire Scout looked and performed great. It will
be an important element of our manned-unmanned training and will
make a big difference in the survivability of our aviators," he
said.
"Fire Scout will provide a bird's eye view of combat situations
through real-time streaming video," Northrop Grumman said in a
press release. Unlike other platforms with this capability, like
the Air Force's RQ-1B Predator, Fire Scout has the particular
advantages that accrue to its helicopter platform: it can hover, it
can back up, it can touch down on the battlefield successfully.
It can also be used to deliver supplies to beleaguered outposts
without risking human aircrews. And it has recently had tests of a
combat capability at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona: an RQ-8A
prototype, forerunner of the MQ-8B, successfully fired two 2.75"
Mark 66 aerial rockets at a ground target.
The Army is developing a system of UAVs that range from tiny
"model planes" that can be backpacked by Special Forces through
larger drones, up to a large gyroplane in development by Piasecki.
The largest UAV in this planned family is the RQ-8, which is an
unmanned version of the manned Schweizer 330SP helicopter, made by
Schweizer Aircraft of Elmira, NY, which is a division of
Sikorsky.
The motive power of the MQ-8 comes from a Rolls Royce 250-C20W
turboshaft engine. The forerunner of the MQ-8B, the RQ-8A, shared
the three-bladed fully-articulated rotor of the Schweizer 330, but
with folding blades, which facilitate shipboard stowage or
convenient surface or cargo-airplane transport of the UAV. The
MQ-8B, however, has a four-bladed rotor.
The change in nomenclature from the RQ-8A, which was produced
only in prototype, to the MQ-8B, which is expected to be produced
in a series of almost 200 for both services, is due to mission
changes resulting from the increased (and increasing) capabilities
of the UAV. "RQ" stands for "reconnaissance, unmanned," while the
"M" in "MQ-8" is for "multimission."
The original purpose of Fire Scout was to serve as a battlefield
scout and a communications relay for the Army's transformed
brigades. The original fielding date was 2011. But the
rocket-firing test demonstrates that the number of missions that
the MQ-8 may ultimately do is limited more by the soldiers'
imagination than by the framework of the original concept. And the
program has been so far ahead of schedule that Army leaders are
hoping to deploy it as much as four years early -- which would put
Fire Scout in soldiers' hands and operational as early as next
year.
The MQ-8 has flown over 150 hours in 170 flights, not counting
the time accrued by its RQ-8 predecessors.
The Navy has also been interested in the Fire Scout. The sea
service plans to use it to provide an onboard aircraft to the
Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship; the Navy has two on order, and the
versatile aircraft will soon be conducting a shipboard approach and
landing demonstration.
Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, a division of the
defense-contracting behemoth,l makes a wide range of unmanned
aircraft, including the Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk and Army MQ-5
Hunter intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance craft; the
BQM-34 and BQM-74 target drones; and DARPA's X-47 Joint Unmanned
Combat Air System project. It's also working on a Marine Corps
program, Killer Bee.
Schweizer makes helicopters that are used for civil and military
training and light utility missions worldwide. The Elmira, New York
firm also serves as the Hawk Werks, Sikorsky's special products,
advanced technology and rapid prototype lab.
Ft. Rucker trains well over 1,000 helicopter pilots a year for
all four US services, and numerous foreign officers as well.