Racal secures £5 million orders for Nimrod and EHIO1
Racal secures £5 million orders for Nimrod and EHIO1
Keywords Display, Helicopters, Navigation,Racal
Racal Avionics has extended the capability of its Control Display and Navigation Unit (CDNU)following the award of contracts from GKN-Westland Helicopters Limited and British Aerospace worth in the region of £5 million. For the Nimrod MRA 4 programme, the CDNU will be used in the new External Maintenance Data Access Panel (EMDAP) role, which will interface with the on-board utility computers allowing ground crew to carry out stores management functions which include control and monitoring of fuelling and defuelling, display of fuel tank quantities and consumable levels, display of selected maintenance data and initiation of system diagnostics.
Faster turnaround times will be achievable with the ground crew gaining access to the EMDAP and downloading data from the aircraft via the undercarriage wheel bay. The unit has been ruggedised to withstand the extreme environmental conditions, including a loading of up to 13.9G experienced in the undercarriage bay. EMDAP stores and displays a number of data pages, displayed over 12 lines of 22 characters, on a TFEL flat panel display. EMDAP communicates with the utilities computers via a multiplexed digital databus (1553B) and together they form the comprehensive utilities systems management system (USMS).
For GKN-Westland Helicopters, Racal will supply its lightweight common control unit (LWCCU),based on the CDNU, for integration into 15 Cormorant EHIO1 SAR and 16 Italian EH 101 ASW and Utility helicopters. The LWCCU, is the main pilot/co-pilot interface with the aircraft's mission, tactical, navigation and communications systems and is already being installed in a total of 44 RN Merlin Mk 1 and 22 RAF Merlin Mk 3s. The LWCCU's considerable growth potential for integration with other on-board systems, particularly communications, is currently being evaluated.
The Racal CDNU is installed on Royal Navy Sea King, MK4, 5, 6 and Lynx HMA 8. The RAF Sea King,HAR 3 and Nimrod fleets are the two most recent UK MoD applications for the CDNU demonstrating its versatility.
Further details from Racal Avionics Ltd, 86-88 Bushey Road, London SW20 0JH, UK.
