Product types

Markets

NASA SELECTS ACTIVE SENSORS RVDT’S FOR LATEST BLACKHAWK STEALTH PROJECT

1st April 2010

A team of NASA engineers are looking into methods of increasing the militery stealth of the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter through noise reduction tests being carried out this year (2010) at the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC), Moffet Field, California. To reduce noise from the rotor blades, engineers are developing motion-control technology by inputing low-frequency variations of rotor blade pitch-angle into the control system.

The control instrumentation required for the tests are mounted in a ‘hat’ at the root of the rotor blades. Active Sensors XRT RVDT’s with integral signal electronics are attached to the ‘crab arms’,which inturn control and measure blade motion, pitch, flap and lag of each blade. Jiawei Toh of Jacobs Technology commented,“Active Sensors DC/DC RVDT’s with built-in signal electronics are specified to minimise the electrical hardware required, and to reduce electrical noise propagation in the control-wiring loom. Our tests will be on-going in 2010".

The objective of the NASA program is to measure blade-vortex interaction noise from the UH-60 rotor. These measurements will be compared with previous wind-tunnel tests in order to better understand the noise created with the ultimate goal of reducing it.

Active Sensors is a leading designer of high performance rotary and linear position sensors for motion control and measurement systems. Active Sensors specialise in contactless and contacting technology providing sensor specifications of the highest quality and accuracy. The company is strategically placed in Europe and North America to serve its customers worldwide.

For more information about this story or any other story please contact us.