Rapid Helicopter Sling Load Hookup

The two major improvements to helicopter sling load operations from which the air assault units will receive the biggest `bang for their buck' are: expanding the target volume that the pilot must maintain his aircraft's load hook in (from a 1-ft radius to say a 5-ft radius) automating the hook-up process to obviate the requirement for ground crew atop each load during hook-upThe technical objective of Phase I of this effort is therefore to develop and demonstrate a design for a Guided RAPid Load Engaging Sling (GRAPLES) device which will greatly reduce the time required for hook up of helicopter sling loads while maintainingthe load capacity of the system, reducing the danger to and requirement for ground personnel and not effecting the airworthiness or operational performance of the helicopter/load combination. Our approach is to reduce the issue to a simpler mechanicalproblem of automatically engaging the load to a sling suspended from the aircraft load hook, rather than a complex electronic sensor, feedback, aircraft control problem. The improvements proposed will minimize aircraft loiter time at the PZ, hence speed up the sling load pick up task significantly and reduce the stress and danger to aircrew and ground crew alike. By addressing the problem as a mechanical designchallenge we aim to avoid expensive electronics, modifications to aircraft, etc and to develop a solution that is sufficient low cost and flexible as to be field-worthy in the short term and truly suitable for transfer to other DOD, Government andcommercial markets for a variety of load coupling applications, not just high dollar, `exotic' roles such as helicopter sling loading.