Army looks to L-3 Avionics to provide displays for late-model CH-47 Chinook helicopters
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala., 11 March 2013. U.S. Army helicopter avionics experts are looking to L-3 Avionics Systems Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mich., to supply color avionics displays for the twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter.
The Defense Logistics Agency Aviation activity at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is awarding L-3 Avionics an $18.6 million sole-source contract for GH3001 color display, which will be one of the helicopter flight display units on upgraded Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The contract was announced late last week.
The Army contract follows an announcement earlier this month of an award by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in Stratford, Conn., to L-3 Avionics to supply GH3001 display for the Sikorsky H-60 and S-70i military helicopters. L-3 announced the Sikorsky avionics design-in at the Heli-Expo trade show in Las Vegas.
The L-3 GH3001 display is designed as an electronic standby instrument system (ESIS), which provides the pilot with essential flight information in case of other avionics instrument failures while in flight. The display requires only minimal power during operation.
The L-3 GH3001 avionics display measures 3 by 3 inches, and its processor is nine inches deep. The display runs on 28-volt DC power, complies to DO-160D, and is dimable from 150 to 4 foot lamberts.
The GH3001, which is hardened to military standards, is a full-color active-matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) that provides the Chinook pilot with attitude, altitude, airspeed, heading, and navigation information.
The display offers a range of navigation interfaces, and its solid-state internal sensors eliminate the need for separate spinning-mass gyros, L-3 officials say, offering increased reliability and performance over electro-mechanical avionics instruments.
The GH3001 offers readability in direct sunlight as well as dark cockpit conditions. The multi-function display offers clear off-axis viewing and anti-aliasing of graphics for readouts at any attitude. The display also is compatible with night-vision goggles. The instrument uses the remote-mounted Air Data Computer ADC-3000 to display airspeed and altitude.
The GH3001 has an integrated air data sensor card with pitot static connections to the unit, eliminating the need for a remote-mounted air data computer, and uses the L-3 MAG-3000 for heading inputs. The GH3001 has the added flexibility to interface with an ARINC 429 AHRS or INS system.
The GH3001 is certified to high levels of electromagnetic interference to meet military guidelines, and provides customized tape readouts that the addition of a vertical speed indicator (VSI), and the instrument offers optional engine status and rotor speed RPM.
The display weighs 3.6 pounds. Its external system interfaces include two CSDB inputs, four ARINC 429 inputs; and offers odes for FMS, NAV, VOR, ILS, and TACAN.
The GH3001 complements the advanced CH-47F glass cockpit setup, which consists of five 8-by-5-inch monitors that replace all old gauges and systems information displays on previous versions of the Chinook helicopter.
On this contract, L-3 will do the work in Grand Rapids, Mich., ad should be finished by March 2017.
For more information contact L-3 Avionics online at www.as.l-3com.com, or the Army Redstone Arsenal at www.garrison.redstone.army.mil.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
