Projects

August 1992 – April 1998

Universal Static Balance Stand

MANTECH Program Manager, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Corpus Christi Army Depot

Corpus Christi Army Depot, Corpus Christi, TX

Developed a digital method to static balance several different helicopter blades models and types on one fixture a low cost for both depot and field operations. This replaces currently used large hard tooling for each helicopter model and type in the depot environment. This single fixture replaced 10 existing customized depot fixtures freeing up production space, and will enable users to statically balance any type of main rotor blade with one fixture. This fixture supports all Department of Defense main rotor blades and provides tighter blade adjustment tolerances within the existing range on the span-wise center of gravity, chord-wise center of gravity, and overall blade weight. Supported blades include HH-47D Chinook (fore and aft blades), H-60 Blackhawk and Seahawk, AH-64 Apache, AH-1S cobra, AH-1W Super Cobra, UH-1 Huey, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, CH-53E Sea Stallion, CH-46, CH-53D, and H-3.