PARSIPPANY, N.J., 23 April 2009. Curtiss-Wright Corp. won a contract from Claverham Limited to provide transducers for fly-by-wire systems that control the main rotor and tail rotor on the Sikorsky UH-60M Upgrade and CH-53K helicopters. The contract could exceed $20 million over a 15-year period. Shipments are expected to begin this year from the company's Motion Control facility in Christchurch, U.K.

Curtiss-Wright is a supplier of linear displacement transducers, rotary displacement transducers, and solenoids for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft in commercial and defense applications.

Under the terms of this award, Curtiss-Wright will supply multichannel and pressure-sealed linear variable displacement transducers (LVDTs).

LVDTs are embedded in the primary flight control actuators manufactured by Claverham Limited, a Hamilton Sundstrand Flight Systems business unit. The transducers provide electrical signals that are proportional to the position of the hydraulic actuator rod. The actuators form part of the fly-by-wire control system, which changes the rotor pitch angles on the main and tail rotors in response to the pilot's commands during flight.