During its mission, AWHero can transfer collected information (including real-time videos) to SAR coordination centers on the ground. “AWHero can share the same set of information with a manned platform to be directly displayed on Leonardo helicopters’ fully digital cockpit HMI in order to maximize aircrew situational awareness prior to insertion in critical rescue tasks,” Pretolani said.
Airbus Helicopters is similarly interested in teamed SAR missions. Its UAS is the VSR700, an unmanned VTOL based on the manned Cabri G2 light helicopter designed and built by French SME Guimbal. “The VSR700 has capabilities and features that could be ideal for SAR missions, mainly its endurance, payload, autonomy, and handling qualities,” said Nicolas Delmas, head of Airbus Helicopters’ VSR700 program. “Thanks to the dynamic system developed on the Cabri G2, the VSR700 will also be able to fly in difficult weather conditions as often encountered during SAR missions.”
The VSR700 sensors currently being tested for the French Navy feature a radar and an electro-optical turret, Delmas said, and both could be used for SAR missions to detect and identify people and vessels in trouble. “If a customer requires it, Airbus Helicopters could work on the integration of specific SAR payloads like a raft or a survival kit that could be dropped from the VSR700,” he added.
Airbus Helicopters tested the manned/unmanned teaming (MUM-T) capabilities of an H145 helicopter and VTOL UAS in April 2018. “The test demonstrated that the manned platform could exercise full control of the UAS, including its takeoff and landing,” Delmas said. “In SAR missions, a VSR700 or multiple VSR700s could be placed under the control of a manned helicopter to perform search tasks. This team would then be able to cover greater areas than a single helicopter would. It would also be less expensive to operate than multiple manned helicopters.”
Bell also has an entry in the teaming race, namely the company’s Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) unit. This is a unique four-engine equipped frame that lifts cargo within a central pod vertically from the ground, adopts a wing-borne flight profile to get from Point A to Point B, and then resumes a VTOL stance for landing.
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Bell’s Terry Miyauchi can foresee the APT being used to rapidly deploy critically important supplies to victims during SAR missions, in addition to providing advance spotting for manned helicopters heading to the accident scene. “At the same time, Bell largely sees the primary response aircraft for today’s SAR mission as manned systems,” he said. “This is definitely seen because of the vast deltas between manned and unmanned systems in payload ability, speed, range, and endurance beyond line of sight and extraction ability.”
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