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

SAFE 2010 H R Smith Group of Companies www.searchandrescue.com H R Smith Group of Companies

H R Smith Group of Companies Techtest Ltd Head Office Herefordshire UK Specmat Inc Rockford Tennessee H R Smith Group of 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. H R Smith Group of Companies

Emergency Transmitter for JSF 500 500-27 27-07 07 PLB PLB • 406 SARSAT Certified • Aviation Qualified • Integral GPS • 121.5 / 243 MHz • Two-way Speech H R Smith Group of Companies

Traditional Activation Methods How to activate the beacon? • Manual - dependent on crew status • Water - ineffective over land • Acceleration – difficult to profile • Ejection seat lanyard – most favoured. Benefits of early activation…… H R Smith Group of Companies

Airborne Activation Benefits Line of Sight Visibility Earlier activation LOS increases beacon range and reduces rescue time Timeline H R Smith Group of Companies

Airborne Activation Benefits And avoids obscuration by geographic features 30 …in the UK H R Smith Group of Companies

Airborne Activation Benefits Beacon activation during ejection therefore: • Minimizes delay in emergency transmission • Ensures greatest terrestrial visibility • Avoids obscuration by geographic features • Enhances satellite detection probability. H R Smith Group of Companies

When to Activate Man-Seat Separation provides the optimum trigger to activate the beacon which then transmits throughout the descent. H R Smith Group of Companies

Production JSF Requirement An auto-activation system for the US16E ejection seat independent of lanyards and electrical wiring AND pilot-selectable in-flight activation-inhibit facility. H R Smith Group of Companies

Enable – Inhibit Requirement • Pilot selectable • Pilot proof • Easily accessible in flight • Mechanically interfaced with ejection seat • Electrically interfaced with beacon • No electrical wiring or power requirements. H R Smith Group of Companies

Solution… A Fully Integrated Magnetically Operated ‘Wireless’ System H R Smith Group of Companies

US16E Auto-activation System Auto-activation Arm / Off Cradle Switch Cradle-strap locking mechanism 500-27-07 Beacon Beacon securing strap H R Smith Group of Companies

Activation Decision Tree START Is ARM Beacon OFF set to ARM or OFF EJECTION Man-seat YES NO Separation Beacon OFF Beacon ON Beacon OFF H R Smith Group of Companies

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. H R Smith Group of Companies

The Problem Ejection Testing The difficulty comes in understanding and specifying the ejection and post-ejection environment H R Smith Group of Companies

The Problems There is no problem that cannot be solved by the use of high explosives (Anonymous) H R Smith Group of Companies

Cradle Structural Damage Polyetherimide (PEI) Injection moulding Used for its exceptional tensile strength and flexibility H R Smith Group of Companies

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.) H R Smith Group of Companies

Cradle Structural Damage Cradle Structural Failure Solution: Increased mating area with sitting platform Original Section Modified Section H R Smith Group of Companies

Beacon Securing Strap Release Inadvertent release of beacon securing strap caused magnet misalignment………… ……..Uncommanded activation H R Smith Group of Companies

Beacon Securing Strap Release Fabric securing strap…. ….& tensioning buckle. H R Smith Group of Companies

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. H R Smith Group of Companies

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. H R Smith Group of Companies

The Future Wireless (Magnetic) Activation…... • Dual-function SAR/CSAR beacon • In-flight selection of SAR/CSAR modes • Extend concept to other seat variants • Investigate other possible applications. H R Smith Group of Companies

Symposium 2010 Thank You Any Questions? www.searchandrescue.com H R Smith Group of Companies