TsAGI’s specialists commissioned a new helicopter flight simulator
10 March 2017
The specialists of the Central AeroHydrodynamic Institute named after professor N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI, part of the National Research Center “Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky”) commissioned the helicopter flight simulator VPS-5.
The simulator for rotary-wing aircraft with such functional characteristics (visualization, digital simulation of effort on control levers) was designed in Russia for the first time. The simulator allows research into flight dynamics of various types of rotary-wing aircraft.
The new simulator comprises a stationary helicopter cockpit, simulators of scenes outside the cockpit and on-board equipment, a simulating system of the effort on flight controls and a computer complex. The cockpit accommodates the pilot and an engineer who controls the simulator and conducts the experiment.
The outside situation simulator is an eight-channel projection visualization system. The dome screen has a horizontal look-up angle range of 200 degrees and 110 degrees in the vertical plane.
The system synthesizes the 3D scene with various landscapes, including mountain terrain. The device can simulate various visibility and illumination conditions depending on the time of the day and weather (rain, snow, fog, storm, etc.). In addition, it can put on the scene stationary and mobile ground, air and sea objects (drilling platforms, aircraft carrying ships, aircraft).
The cockpit simulator equipment was designed using the digital synthesis on several sensor monitors.
The simulation of effort on the flight control levers allows one to simulate control systems of existing and perspective helicopters.
The new flight simulator can operate in a single airspace with the existing flight simulator. It allows testing of paired flights of helicopters, e.g. cargo transportation by two helicopters.