Honeywell Aspire-Series Satellite Communication System Validation on the NRC Bell 412 Advanced System Research Aircraft

Abstract

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and Honeywell Aerospace (EMS Aviation Technologies Inc. Canada) completed prototype testing of its helicopter Satellite Communications (SATCOM, Aspire 200 Series) system for certification assessment. As the NRC Bell 412 is experimental (fly-by-wire control system, upgraded engines and displays), the Honeywell HSD-400i system payload represented a surrogate integration on a standard Bell civil utility transport helicopter. Following NRC's airworthiness clearance, ground testing was completed with data collected encompassing aircraft performance, SATCOM performance, and radio frequency (RF) energy surveys. There was no negative influence of the integration or associated testing on aircraft engine or transmission performance. NRC aircraft radio frequency measurements indicated safe SATCOM RF energy outputs. Externally, higher RF energy output occurred in the aircraft's first quadrant (i.e.; nose and right of nose). Internally, higher RF energy occurred in the aircraft's cockpit decreasing towards the aft-cabin. Honeywell measurements of throughput, bandwidth, and linking via real time data analysis indicated acceptable SATCOM performance. Data rates for SATCOM reception and transmission were analyzed where worst case connectivity was assessed to be 25% less than those for best and baseline case rates. Overall, analyses by Honeywell engineers indicated that acceptable performance is expected for Aspire-200 systems integrated into transport utility class helicopters such as the NRC Bell 412 providing knowledge for Honeywell's substantiation of future SATCOM product Special Type Certificate applications.