Training Center For Helo Pilots Hosts Helo With No Pilot

The home of the US Army's aviation branch, and the training center for all the services' rotary-wing aviators, just hosted two rare events: a 50th anniversary ceremony and a 2-day demonstration of a helicopter with no pilot at all.

The 50th Anniversary of Ft. Rucker was celebrated by the Army Aviation community past and present with the dedication of a new simulator building, Warrior Hall, which will ultimately house 38 full-motion flight simulators (and could hold up to 59 of them). 23 have been installed already, and the first flight students will train on them starting November 7th. But the buzz at Rucker was less about the post's half-century record of training helicopter pilots, and more about the helicopter that was demonstrated with not pilot on board at all.

The Anniversary was an excuse and opportunity for the Northrop Grumman Corporation to conduct a demo of its MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV in front of the assembled Army brass and various luminaries of Army aviation, thousands of Aviation Branch soldiers and family members, and local luminaries at Ft. Rucker, Alabama.  The photo with green trees in the background was taken at this demonstration.

Northrop Grumman was assisted in this task by the U.S. Army's Airworthiness Development and Test Center at Ft. Rucker. The demonstrations took place Oct. 21 and 22, and showed some of what the MQ-8 can do. Army leaders don't envision the small drone as replacing manned helicopters across the board; its particular role is to conduct battlefield area reconnaissance, including in conditions where exposure to enemy fire makes it too hazardous to risk a manned helicopter.

Brigadier General E.J. Sinclair, commanding general of the Army's Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, spoke enthusiastically about the demonstration. "Fire Scout looked and performed great. It will be an important element of our manned-unmanned training and will make a big difference in the survivability of our aviators," he said.

"Fire Scout will provide a bird's eye view of combat situations through real-time streaming video," Northrop Grumman said in a press release. Unlike other platforms with this capability, like the Air Force's RQ-1B Predator, Fire Scout has the particular advantages that accrue to its helicopter platform: it can hover, it can back up, it can touch down on the battlefield successfully.

It can also be used to deliver supplies to beleaguered outposts without risking human aircrews. And it has recently had tests of a combat capability at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona: an RQ-8A prototype, forerunner of the MQ-8B, successfully fired two 2.75" Mark 66 aerial rockets at a ground target.

The Army is developing a system of UAVs that range from tiny "model planes" that can be backpacked by Special Forces through larger drones, up to a large gyroplane in development by Piasecki. The largest UAV in this planned family is the RQ-8, which is an unmanned version of the manned Schweizer 330SP helicopter, made by Schweizer Aircraft of Elmira, NY, which is a division of Sikorsky.

The motive power of the MQ-8 comes from a Rolls Royce 250-C20W turboshaft engine. The forerunner of the MQ-8B, the RQ-8A, shared the three-bladed fully-articulated rotor of the Schweizer 330, but with folding blades, which facilitate shipboard stowage or convenient surface or cargo-airplane transport of the UAV. The MQ-8B, however, has a four-bladed rotor.

The change in nomenclature from the RQ-8A, which was produced only in prototype, to the MQ-8B, which is expected to be produced in a series of almost 200 for both services, is due to mission changes resulting from the increased (and increasing) capabilities of the UAV. "RQ" stands for "reconnaissance, unmanned," while the "M" in "MQ-8" is for "multimission."

The original purpose of Fire Scout was to serve as a battlefield scout and a communications relay for the Army's transformed brigades. The original fielding date was 2011. But the rocket-firing test demonstrates that the number of missions that the MQ-8 may ultimately do is limited more by the soldiers' imagination than by the framework of the original concept. And the program has been so far ahead of schedule that Army leaders are hoping to deploy it as much as four years early -- which would put Fire Scout in soldiers' hands and operational as early as next year.

The MQ-8 has flown over 150 hours in 170 flights, not counting the time accrued by its RQ-8 predecessors.

The Navy has also been interested in the Fire Scout. The sea service plans to use it to provide an onboard aircraft to the Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship; the Navy has two on order, and the versatile aircraft will soon be conducting a shipboard approach and landing demonstration.

Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, a division of the defense-contracting behemoth,l makes a wide range of unmanned aircraft, including the Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk and Army MQ-5 Hunter intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance craft; the BQM-34 and BQM-74 target drones; and DARPA's X-47 Joint Unmanned Combat Air System project. It's also working on a Marine Corps program, Killer Bee.

Schweizer makes helicopters that are used for civil and military training and light utility missions worldwide. The Elmira, New York firm also serves as the Hawk Werks, Sikorsky's special products, advanced technology and rapid prototype lab.

Ft. Rucker trains well over 1,000 helicopter pilots a year for all four US services, and numerous foreign officers as well.

FMI: www.is.northropgrumman.com, www.schweizeraircraft.com, www.rucker.army.mil