Integrated flight/fire control for attack helicopters

It is shown that integrated flight and fire control modes, analogous to those used in fixed-wing applications, can be implemented to enhance an attack helicopter's air-to-air and air-to-ground combat effectiveness. With fly-by-wire active flight controls and state-of-the-art technology in target acquisition and tracking, integrated flight/fire control can increase firing opportunities, improve weapon accuracy and enhance survivability. Two typical applications are illustrated, using detailed simulations of the fly-by-wire controlled helicopter and associated weapons systems. The avionics architecture needed to implement an integrated system is described, and it is shown that it is achievable with straightforward extensions of designs already in place for advanced versions of the AH-64 aircraft     

Architecture Considerations for Digital Automatic Flight Control Systems

Functional partitioning, redundancy structure, internal communications, and software modularization define the architecture of a digital automatic flight control system (DAFCS). Selection of a suitable system architecture for commercial transports involves such factors as the functional scope, growth provision and flexibility requirements, sensor interfaces, the aircraft's actuator and control surface redundancy, and the dispatch reliability requirements. Trade-offs concerning these various factors are discussed, and it is shown that a very versatile and almost universal DAFCS can be configured to meet the general and peculiar needs associated with each aircraft application. Specific results associated with this system's recent demonstration flights in the DC-10 aircraft, as well as examples from several other transport aircraft applications of the same DAFCS architecture, are used to illustrate the design concepts.