The Seven Best Technologies To Help Reduce Helicopter Accidents

The European Helicopter Safety Team (EHST), working in partnership with the National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam, recently announced a list of seven technologies every helicopter operator should seriously consider in the effort to reduce accidents. The EHST and Aerospace Lab study analyzed accident causes and contributing factors and settled on the tools most likely to warn pilots of impending accidents or increase their situational awareness.

This included an enhanced ground proximity warning system to aurally and visually warn of land-based obstacles, such as mountainous terrain and radio towers, and a laser radar obstacle and terrain avoidance system to warn pilots of the proximity of nearly invisible wires using an eye-safe laser mounted on the helicopter’s fuselage. It also studied a passive tower-based obstacle collision avoidance system that employs ground-based units attached to utility and power-line towers. The ground-based systems detect approaching air traffic and activate warning lights that illuminate the obstacle.

In addition, the EHST and Aerospace Lab study analyzed numerical approaches for in-flight rotorcraft flight performance and mission planning. Onboard flight-performance models display critical information (available power levels, power required to hover or cruise, maximum flight or hover weight, maximum flight speed, fuel requirements and best attainable rate-of-climb, among others) in a dynamic environment. It also looked at helicopter radar altimeters to deliver the most precise altitude measurement possible; digital range flight guidance aids to allow low-level helicopter flights using terrain-following commands; and the wire-strike protection system, which a U.S. Army study found reduces fatalities attributable in-flight wire strikes by half.