SAFE 2010 H R Smith Group of Companies www.searchandrescue.com H R - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

H R Smith Group

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H R Smith Group of Companies www.searchandrescue.com

SAFE 2010

H R Smith Group

• f Companies

Specmat Inc Rockford Tennessee Techtest Ltd Head Office Herefordshire UK

H R Smith Group of Companies

H R Smith Group

• f Companies

Presentation Scope

• Ejection seat emergency transmitters
• Benefits of auto-activation during ejection
• JSF demonstration phase solution
• A new approach for production JSF
• Practical experience & lessons learnt
• Future applications.

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500 500-27 27-07 07 PLB PLB

• 406 SARSAT Certified
• Aviation Qualified
• Integral GPS
• 121.5 / 243 MHz
• Two-way Speech

Emergency Transmitter for JSF

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Traditional Activation Methods

• Manual - dependent on crew status
• Water - ineffective over land
• Acceleration – difficult to profile
• Ejection seat lanyard – most favoured.

How to activate the beacon?

Benefits of early activation……

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Timeline

Line of Sight Visibility

LOS Earlier activation increases beacon range and reduces rescue time

Airborne Activation Benefits

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And avoids

• bscuration

by geographic features

Airborne Activation Benefits 30 …in the UK

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Beacon activation during ejection therefore:

Airborne Activation Benefits

• Minimizes delay in emergency transmission
• Ensures greatest terrestrial visibility
• Avoids obscuration by geographic features
• Enhances satellite detection probability.

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When to Activate to activate the beacon which then transmits throughout the descent. Man-Seat Separation provides the optimum trigger

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Production JSF Requirement

pilot-selectable in-flight activation-inhibit facility. AND An auto-activation system for the US16E ejection seat independent of lanyards and electrical wiring

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• Pilot selectable
• Pilot proof
• Easily accessible in flight
• Mechanically interfaced with ejection seat
• Electrically interfaced with beacon
• No electrical wiring or power requirements.

Enable – Inhibit Requirement

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Solution… A Fully Integrated Magnetically Operated ‘Wireless’ System

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Auto-activation Cradle 500-27-07 Beacon Beacon securing strap Cradle-strap locking mechanism

US16E Auto-activation System

Arm / Off Switch

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Is Beacon set to ARM

• r

OFF

ARM NO OFF

Beacon ON

Activation Decision Tree

START

YES

EJECTION

Man-seat Separation

Beacon OFF Beacon OFF

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The Challenges

• Fully automated activation
• In flight Arm-Off selection by pilot
• No electrical wires or interfaces
• No mechanical moving parts
• No lanyards or linkages
• No physical seat attachments
• Beacon easily recoverable for normal use.

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The Problem The difficulty comes in understanding and specifying the ejection and post-ejection environment

Ejection Testing

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The Problems There is no problem that cannot be solved by the use

• f high explosives

(Anonymous)

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Cradle Structural Damage

Polyetherimide (PEI) Injection moulding Used for its exceptional tensile strength and flexibility

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Remedial Options

• Enlarge the Switch-Cradle cross-section

(Increased cross-section area by over three times)

• Use glass reinforced Polyethersulphone (PES)

(More brittle than PEI)

• Consider non-Magnetic metal construction

(Poorer tensile strength than PEI)

• Treat the cradle as a one-shot device.

(A practical option during testing.)

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Cradle Structural Failure

Increased mating area with sitting platform

Solution:

Original Section Modified Section

Cradle Structural Damage

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Beacon Securing Strap Release

Inadvertent release of beacon securing strap caused magnet misalignment…………

……..Uncommanded activation

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….& tensioning buckle. Fabric securing strap….

Beacon Securing Strap Release

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Lessons Learnt

• Overlapping development & production
• Co-operation essential across all disciplines:
• Project management
• Engineering
• Commercial
• Pragmatism - best achievable solution
• Flexibility - willingness to adapt design
• Resilience - sustaining quality under pressure.

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The Result A Fully Integrated Emergency Transmitter Featuring:

• 406 MHz SARSAT functionality and speech
• Automatic wireless activation
• Pilot Arm-Off switch coupled wirelessly
• Robust rigorously tested design
• Post-ejection portable emergency beacon
• Ease of installation and maintenance.

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The Future

• Dual-function SAR/CSAR beacon
• In-flight selection of SAR/CSAR modes
• Extend concept to other seat variants
• Investigate other possible applications.

Wireless (Magnetic) Activation…...

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www.searchandrescue.com

Symposium 2010

Thank You Any Questions?