38 | tecHnoloGY
Fig. 1: NICETRIP model on a rotor test stand at DLR (Photographs: DLR)
DLR helicopter research from a HEMS perspective: Milestones and challenges Author: Dr.-ing. Klausdieter Pahlke German Aerospace Center (DLR) Program Directorate Aeronautics Head of Rotorcraft Research Program Lilienthalplatz 7 38108 Braunschweig Germany
Helicopters play a crucial role in rescue services for today’s society. They provide support in emergency situations arising in connection with business or leisure – from traffic accidents and transporting patients in need of urgent care, to rescuing people from inaccessible areas such as mountain ranges. Such operations are only possible with helicopters, because they are able to hover steadily. Neither fixed-wing aircraft nor autogyros (gyrocopters) could provide these services. The unique hovering abilities of helicopters mean that operators are willing to accept considerable disadvantages in other areas of the technology. Helicopter research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is therefore strongly directed towards solving problems such as design-related issues (e.g. noise and vibration), relatively high operating costs, lower horizontal airspeed than fixed-wing aircraft, and the poor ratio of useful load to take-off weight. This article gives a brief overview of DLR’s rotorcraft research programme. Not every area of the research is directly connected to air rescue operations. However, the work is still very important to this field because, alongside the capabilities that are immediately relevant to air rescue helicopters, aspects such as operating costs, noise and vibration levels, and crash safety also play key roles for HEMS rotorcraft.
2 · 2012 i vol. 2 i airRescue i 106