The MH-47G Chinook helicopter can perform missions as long as a radius of 300 nautical miles at low altitudes during the day and at night in bad weather and over rough terrain. Its CAAS avionics enables global communications and navigation, and has a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor for low-level flight in poor visibility and bad weather.
As part of the contract, Boeing engineers will install a hover display page in the Special Operations helicopter cockpit avionics that shows an X in the spot where they want to hover or land and the velocity vectors when the aircraft is drifting away from the desired point. Pilots, for example, could program the DAFCS to level the aircraft out at 15 feet, and automatically descend one foot at a time for a safe landing.
The DAFCS also enables the MH-47G pilots to fly up, down, and sideways in one-foot increments to hover and land safely in sand, dust, bad weather, and in blackout conditions at night.
Boeing will do the work in Philadelphia and should be finished by the end of 2013. For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com, or the Army Aviation and Missile Command Contracting Center at https://wwwproc.redstone.army.mil/acquisition.
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