Mids give helicopter pilots a hand aboard ship

Looking to reduce the risks inherent in landing helicopters aboard ships, a team of six Naval Academy midshipmen is documenting the air currents and atmospheric disturbances that pilots must navigate on a regular basis.

If successful, the three-year project, funded by a $500,000 Office of Naval Research grant, will take some of the guesswork out of helicopter landings.

"While we don't have grad students at the Naval Academy, we have very bright midshipmen," said Navy Capt. Murray R. Snyder, the military professor who heads the project. "You give a very smart midshipman the football and some ... guidance, and he will run with it."

Snyder said that the research being done at the Naval Academy is a bargain.

It costs up to $100,000 a day for the Navy to operate an actual warship, and it is difficult to find a ship that's free for testing purposes, he said.

The Naval Academy, on the other hand, has a fleet of 18 Yard Patrol boats, and one is being modified to add a reduced-size helicopter landing pad.

The mids said they are using a three-prong approach in their research. First, there is the "real world" testing they will do by measuring the air wakes that swirl around the modified 108-foot-long YP boat as it navigates the Chesapeake Bay or the Atlantic Ocean.

The midshipmen also will build scale models to be tested in a wind tunnel and, finally, they will run computer models to test data.

The six mids bring a range of talents and experiences to the task, and they are working together to resolve particular pieces of the problem.

Midshipman 1st Class Grant LeMaster, and Midshipman 2nd Class Matthew Hartsog are building a fog machine that can create a cloud for a Yard Patrol boat to pass through.

By recording the fog's churning motions as it gets caught in the wind drafts surrounding the boat, they can help their team accomplish its mission of better understanding air currents.

But, before they can film the fog's patterns, LeMaster and Hartsog have had to design arms for the YP boat so that cameras can reach beyond the decks to record air currents.

"We are out there putting out the smoke, making the videos; we are working more hands-on" than some other members of the team, LeMaster said.

LeMaster also has been in charge of working with boat engineers to add the needed flight deck to the YP.

The plan is to eventually land a radio-controlled, scale-model helicopter as part of the test.

'Shishkoff Pole'

While LeMaster and Hartsog are working on the more concrete aspects of the project, Midshipmen 1st Class James Golden and Midshipman 1st Class William Stillman have a much different task.

They have trained as interns at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, and they recently ran 300 computers simultaneously to process already-existing data on air flow around ships, which will form the foundation for the new research.

"This is not exciting," Stillman said, grinning. "This is tedious."

Golden also is a Trident Scholar, one of the Naval Academy's top students who gets to conduct an in-depth research project. For that project, Golden is looking at ways to reduce the heat that harms equipment such as computers.

Another member of the team, Midshipman 1st Class Joshua Shishkoff, has spent a lot of time lately thinking about how the modified YP boat's vibrations could hurt the accuracy of the data the team collects.

Every bit of the data could be distorted or ruined, Shishkoff said, if recording sensors are allowed to move the slightest bit because of wind, waves or engine vibrations.

He has designed what Snyder calls "The Shishkoff Pole," stainless steel mounting bars that are being fastened to the boat's deck by a series of braces and cables so the instruments attached to the pole will not vibrate.

Rounding out the team is Midshipman 1st Class Gregory Knopik, who is working on designing and installing whatever equipment the team needs to accomplish is mission.

The six mids are majoring in a range of engineering programs, and since five will be graduating in May, Snyder said he will advertise around the academy again, looking for another batch of midshipmen who are excellent students and who want to spend next year working on a serious engineering project.

"Real engineering is hard work," Snyder said.

Benefit to fleet

Naval Academy spokesman Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a surface warfare officer, said the work this team is doing is important.

Carpenter recalled seeing an Army helicopter crash aboard a ship in an accident that was caused largely by unpredictable air currents.

The academy did not provide data on the number of crashes during takeoffs and landings, but said that current practices can make landings take longer - and pose greater risks - than is necessary.

Carpenter described the typical environment aboard a destroyer or cruiser.

The ship is propelled by four jet engines similar to those found on a DC-10 airliner, Carpenter said, and these engines discharge heat and exhaust with tremendous force. Added to these air currents, which a pilot must fly through when landing at sea, a ship has large generators that are powered by gas turbines. These engines are more powerful than actual helicopter engines, Carpenter said, and their exhaust adds to the air turbulence.

Any aircraft approaching or leaving the ship must handle these air currents, Carpenter said, plus deal with the force and direction of winds coming off the front of the ship and swirling from behind the craft as it moves forward.

The officer of the deck, meanwhile, may be about to maneuver alongside another ship, and therefore can't turn his craft to accommodate the helicopter. While all this is going on, Carpenter said, the officer of the deck may be overseeing the offloading of a landing party in a smaller boat.

"The more data you are able to build up on this (type of situation), the better picture of what's going on the officer of the deck, the flight deck crew and the helo crew will have," Carpenter said. "The research these mids are doing really has some direct potential to benefit the fleet."