A most interesting Russian Mil Mi-2 Hoplite stood out on the ramp at AirVenture ‘23, and ANN’s helo consultant Rex Alexander was on the case. To give him the rundown, Tom “Mach” Schnell gave him a heads-up on the aircraft’s mission.
Schnell is the Director of the Operator Performance Laboratory at the University of Iowa. His work there focuses on bringing enhanced vision systems into the cockpit, to give aviators the ability to see through any kind of IMC or nighttime conditions. LIDAR has come into play, too, allowing operators to easily perform instantaneous rangefinding and obstacle detection from afar.
All that info can be combined into a single feed to the operator, and displayed in the panel or on the helmet. Schnell loves his Hoplite, using it as a testbed for his work with the University and the FAA Technical Center. Schnell’s work as a professor gives lookie-loos an impressive amount of insight into his work - just a visit to the Operator Performance Laboratory shows a full 3D view of his hangar and its contents, with price sheets listed for those curious about the cost of operating an Mi-2 today. In the course of his studies and operations, Schnell finds it runs about $850 an hour for the vintage Soviet helicopter.
Aero-TV is a production of the Internationally syndicated Aero-News Network. Seen worldwide by hundreds of thousands of aviators and aviation adherents, ANN's Aero-TV has produced well over 5000 aviation and feature programs, including over 2500 episodes of our daily aviation news program, AIRBORNE UNLIMITED, currently hosted by Holland Lee. Now in its third decade of operation, parent company Aero-News Network, has the most aggressive and intensive editorial profile of any aviation news organization and has published well over a half-million news and feature stories since its inception -- having pioneered the online 24/7 aviation new-media model that so many have emulated.
“Understanding how the ionosphere varies will be a really important part of understanding how to correct the distortions in radio signals that we will need to communicate wit>[...]
From 2023 (YouTube Edition): At the Confluence of Art & Information Developed by pilot, aircraft-owner, and entrepreneur Richard Freilich, METARmaps are syncretisms of visual a>[...]
Aero Linx: European Association for Aviation Psychology (EAAP) Since 1956 the European Association for Aviation Psychology (EAAP) provides a forum for professionals working in the >[...]
Also: Drone Rulemaking Stalled, LA County FD Adds FIREHAWKs, Wilsbach Confirmed, CAF Honors Vet Even with parts of the federal government on pause, Yosemite National Park isn&rsquo>[...]
Aero Linx: Ercoupe Owners Club We fly an airplane that was the peak of pre-World War II development. It took more than a decade and a half before the features of the Ercoupe were t>[...]
Aero-News: Quote of the Day (11.08.25)
See All