Lockheed Martin is to develop a common cockpit for the US Navy's upgraded Sikorsky SH-60Rs and new CH-60s, using commercial technology, after abandoning its initial upgrade approach as too expensive. The company has won a $61 million contract to equip two SH-60R prototypes for flight testing in late 1999, to be followed by cockpit production for some 260 SH-60Rs and 135 CH-60s.
Jim Hargrave, director of navy helicopter programmes at Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, says that the initial design for an upgraded cockpit for the multimission SH-60R proved too expensive when the USN decided it wanted the same cockpit in the vertical-replenishment CH-60.
"The [SH-60R] cockpit we started out with was highly integrated, but not modular, and could not be scaled [down] to the CH-60," he says. "We have redesigned it around building blocks and used more COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] modules." The resulting common cockpit will cost at least $500,000 less to install in the CH-60.
The new cockpit is based around Lockheed Martin-developed flight management and mission computers, using commercial PowerPC processors. Four 200 x 250mm Litton flat-panel displays will replace all but standby instruments, Hargrave says. Off-the-shelf equipment includes dual Litton integrated inertial-navigation/global-positioning units.
Each pilot will have an electronic flight instrument display and a multifunction mission display. The latter will be used to present sensor information, as well as navigation data, rotor and engine instruments and caution/warning system alerts.
The scaled down version installed in the CH-60 could be expanded if the helicopter is upgraded later for the combat search and rescue mission, Hargrave says. He adds that the interservice Team Hawk, comprising the USN, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard H-60 users, is to form a working group to study common avionics upgrades.
Source: Flight International
