Helicopter External Load Acquisition Technology Investigation.

Abstract : The purpose of this study was to identify, analyze, and evaluate methods of improving the acquisition of sling and/or netted loads by a hovering helicopter under poor visibility and other hazardous conditions. Flight and ground crew tasks required to support the external cargo operations were analyzed and resulting baseline crew workloads defined. Hazard analyses of the mission phases were accomplished and hazard categories identified. The results of these analyses were then used as criteria for selecting potential concept candidates for improvement in external load acquisition. Ten candidate concepts were identified. Each was evaluated against established baselines and then ranked in order of improvement over the baseline concept. (Author)