Pax River Briefs

Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

Light copter trainer arrives at Pax

The first of five H-72A training helicopters arrived at Patuxent River Naval Air Station last week, marking a milestone in the production of the multi-role helicopter for Navy service.

The H-72A fleet will be based at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Pax River, where it is to be used to train test pilots from the U.S. military and allied countries. The H-72A shares the same airframe and is manufactured on the same production line as the U.S. Army's UH-72A Lakota light utility helicopter, both of which are produced in Mississippi by EADS North America's American Eurocopter subsidiary.

The Navy's H-72As have several specific equipment additions for their pilot training mission, including jettisonable cockpit doors, a cockpit voice and flight data recorder, a main rotor blade folding kit and an air traffic advisory system. All five H-72As will be configured in the Test Pilot School's high-visibility white and orange paint scheme.

J.F. Taylor to upgrade simulators

J.F. Taylor Inc. of Lexington Park recently won a $7 million contract to upgrade the VH in-service training devices for the executive helicopters located at the MHX-1 Marine Corps Air Facility in Quantico, Va.

"The simulators train the pilots for the president, so it is critical that they have state-of-the-art training capabilities," Jeff Taylor, program manager for the project, said in a statement.

The contract includes a concurrency upgrade and a technology refresh to the VH-60N Aircrew Procedure Trainer and options for a similar upgrade to the VH-3D APT.

The modifications to the flight simulators include a visual upgrade, a technology refresh, modification to the existing devices to maintain concurrency with the aircraft, relocation of both devices, and a flight model upgrade for the VH-3D. "We are very familiar with these devices since we built the cockpits in 2002 and have provided support to the Marine Corps in the intervening years," Mark Taylor, vice president and TSC II program manager, said in a statement.

In addition to upgrading the trainer's visual capabilities, the modifications that J.F. Taylor will perform are designed to increase their reliability and reduce the total life cycle support costs and obsolescence issues.