F-35C Lands at Lakehurst For Testing

Production milestones, roll-outs, test flights, service introduction and other milestones.
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by outlaw162 » 04 Sep 2020, 15:23

....did away with much of the stress on pilots flying behind a ship—and PLM Version 40 (V40) intends to do away with most of what remains.


The end of (to quote JB) 'manly' carrier landings? ...."Just a walk in the park, Kazansky."

AI comes thru again. :mrgreen:

edit: First BFM, now carrier landings....(actually I guess the first thing to go was manual bombing)

"Why yes, young lady, I'm a fighter pilot."

"....yawn"


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by spazsinbad » 09 Feb 2021, 18:45

Some recent PLM posts on previous page so here's anotherie. Yes 'Virginia' technology does make things easier & why not.
Navy Brings ‘Precision Landing Mode’ Carrier Landing Assist Tool to New Fighter Pilots
09 Feb 2021 Megan Eckstein

"The Navy is in the final stages of fully adopting a Precision Landing Mode for fighter pilots, with young fleet replacement squadron pilots for the first time conducting carrier qualifications with the tool that significantly cuts down on the work required during an approach to the back of an aircraft carrier at sea.

Capt. Dan Catlin, the commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106, this week brought some newly winged pilots out to USS Gerard R. Ford (CVN-78) to conduct their first landings at sea in an F-/A-18E-F Super Hornet, both in the daylight and at night. “I will say that, without a doubt, hands down, Day 1 yesterday was by far the smoothest evolution, best performance we’ve seen from our students ever – and that’s by an awful lot,” said Catlin, who personally oversees all his students’ carrier qualifications.

The Precision Landing Mode – a software tool added to the jet’s flight control and mission computers that significantly reduces the number of inputs a pilot has to make on final approach – was first used at sea by test pilots in 2015 under the program name MAGIC CARPET and saw its first usage in a fleet squadron in 2017. The Navy hasn’t been comfortable teaching new pilots how to use the landing tool, though, since there were so many failure modes that could arise on the jet that would prevent the plane from using Precision Landing Mode. Thanks to a software update tested and approved last fall, brand new pilots are finally able to learn how to land with this tool that will make them much more successful with much less work.

“You’ll see the white knuckles, the shaky knees, and you can see the expression on the face of somebody who’s just landed on an aircraft carrier at night for the first time – we didn’t see that last night,” Catlin told reporters today in a call while aboard Ford. “What we saw was a lot of confident aviators who realized that technology is really making something that was supposed to be incredibly hard actually a little bit of fun – not a lot of fun, flying at night is never anyone’s first choice – but the expression on their face really told the story of what this capability brings. They were confident, and quite frankly I think they had a good time out there.”

Catlin explained that, prior to PLM, a pilot would make an average of about 300 minor adjustments during the final 18 seconds on approach to landing on a carrier – having to balance how fast the aircraft was going, whether it was on the right glide slope to land on a moving aircraft carrier, and whether it was properly positioned laterally. “That’s a lot of corrections on the stick and the throttle,” he said.

With PLM, that figure can be reduced down to single digits. The pilot manually inputs the ship’s speed, and then the PLM system automatically computes the proper 3.5-degree glide slope for a safe landing. Once a pilot gets on the ball – not coming in too high or low – the PLM system locks in and maintains that trajectory by managing the throttle.

“What that allows the pilot to do, especially a young, inexperienced pilot, is spend a lot more time focusing on the scan of where that pilot is on the glide slope and where they are on lineup,” Catlin said.

“Landing on an aircraft carrier is the most dangerous thing you can do in all of aviation, that’s across civil and military. It’s no small feat to land on an aircraft carrier at night, with a pitching deck, and after a long six-and-a-half-hour-long combat mission. It’s an incredibly dangerous evolution,” he continued. “What PLM allows us to do is to make that evolution much, much more safe and more efficient.”

Capt. J.J. Cummings, Ford’s commanding officer, said on the call that he had used PLM for about 20 landings himself and was amazed at how few changes he had to make with the stick while coming in for a landing. He said he had seen video of test pilots landing with their hands up, not touching any controls – but Cummings and Catlin stressed that this isn’t meant to be an unmanned landing tool, but rather it significantly cuts down the workload for the pilot.

“The precision landing mode, it’s been eye-watering to watch [newly winged pilots] go behind the boat, day and night,” he said. The young aviators made about 40 passes on Sunday, he said, with just a small number who bolter – when the landing gear hits the flight deck but doesn’t latch onto the arresting gear to stop the plane – and just a few were called by the landing signal officers to make adjustments on their approach.

“I recall one student, his first night trap ever in F-18 Super Hornet, he flew what’s called a rails pass: basically essentially a perfect pass to what’s called an OK 2 wire for his first trap at night in a Super Hornet, and it was staggering to observe,” Cummings said. “This PLM system is amazing for the stability that it provides the aircraft on glide path, and we’ll see increased boarding rates for these aviators and then get folks to the fleet sooner, because generally you have about 5 percent of the fleet replacement pilots will disqualify because of boarding rate or lane[??? is this LINE UP?] performance. With PLM, we’re going to see that number drop significantly and possibly to zero.”... [then further explanation]

...Though pilots would likely want to retain their ability to land on a carrier manually – Catlin said there’s just one failure mode that would prevent PLM from working, and though that failure mode is almost unheard of in Super Hornets, it could still potentially occur – Cummings said the fleet would see great benefits from students learning to fly with PLM...."

Photo: "Rear Adm. John Meier, commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic, communicates with pilots assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106 from the landing signal officer platform on USS Gerald R. Ford’s (CVN 78) flight deck, Feb. 7, 2021. Meier is onboard to observe Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106’s inaugural use of precession landing mode during carrier qualifications(CQ). Ford is underway in the Atlantic Ocean conducting CQ. US Navy photo.
" https://news.usni.org/wp-content/upload ... 7-1165.jpg
&
"Rear Adm. John Meier, commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic, and Capt. J. J. Cummings, left, USS Gerald R. Ford’s (CVN 78) commanding officer, observe flight operations from the ship’s landing signal officer platform, Feb. 7, 2021. Meier is onboard to observe Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106’s inaugural use of precession landing mode during carrier qualifications(CQ). Ford is underway in the Atlantic Ocean conducting CQ. US Navy photo."


Source: https://news.usni.org/2021/02/08/navy-b ... ter-pilots
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by spazsinbad » 13 Feb 2021, 02:56

Even OLDER PLM quote but nice reference for 'how to deck land':
PLM: A REVOLUTION AROUND THE BOAT
Jun 2019 CDR 'Blue' Hadler

"Based on technology that was originally developed for the F-35C, the Super Hornet's 'Magic Carpet' system is now known as PLM - precision landing mode. It's a landing mode with enhanced flight control logic that is designed to make landing on an aircraft carrier easier and more predictable for the pilot. 'PLM allows you to quickly add or subtract lift without changing AoA [angle of attack]; explains Hadler. Ultimately, PLM is designed to make a big difference long-term when it comes to training pilots to land on the ship.

LT 'Quitter' [LSO] says, 'PLM is a mode of the autopilot. It uses flight control logic to fly a much smoother profile on the 3.5° glideslope, all the way to touch-down in the groove. From a pilot perspective it means a lot fewer control inputs - up in the Arctic Circle it really helped us out when we had a pitching deck. From an LSO [landing signal officer] perspective, I see a lot more 'passes' that are safe and more consistent - the boarding rate across air wings has gone up significantly. There's some emergencies that mean we can't use PLM, such as a flight control system issue, so once a month we fly a traditional approach to the boat'.

Explaining the approach to the carrier, 'Quitter' says, 'What we're looking for on the 'meatball' improved Fresnel optical landing system [IFOLS] is the datum, a single row of green lights across the center. The 'ball' in the middle projects where you are on the glideslope: if it's high you're too high, and if its low you're too low. There's also a set of wave-off lights. The LSO can wave you off by clicking the hand-held pickle - that's the visual cue. You're looking to put the 'ball' in the middle of the lights, and that will put you on target for the three wire.

'With PLM, you click into an autopilot mode and instead of the usual velocity vector you see a ship-referenced velocity vector. We still reference the 'meatball' and use stick inputs to make sure it's centered, but the jet will fly to the point on the deck where that velocity vector is pointed'. The ship-referenced PLM allows for the fact that the ship is moving.

Source: Combat Aircraft Magazine June 2019 Volume 20 Number 6


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by spazsinbad » 16 Dec 2021, 09:13

8) Gets even better for sprog newbies (in trouble perhaps) with extra goodness in the PLM Precision Landing Mode. 8)
Navy’s latest flight control technology sustains safety in the skies
14 Dec 2021 Elizabeth Fahrner, PMA-265 Communications

"NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md.--Imagine landing a fighter jet at 150 miles per hour on a small runway bobbing in the middle of the ocean – with only one engine. Thanks to the Navy’s latest version of the Precision Landing Mode (PLM), landing in this extremely challenging scenario is now much safer and easier.

Latest PLM upgrade allows pilots to land safely in failure conditions
PLM
– a capability managed by the F/A-18 & EA-18G Program Office (PMA-265) – brings a revolutionary improvement to aircraft carrier landings. This new flight control technology drastically reduces the number of inputs a pilot must make on final approach to the carrier. With its optimized control laws and tailored displays, PLM eases pilot workload and makes landing much safer and simpler. Additionally, it improves overall recovery time, reduces tanker requirements and streamlines training requirements.

Delivered to the fleet last October, the latest upgrade of PLM allows pilots to use the technology even under failure conditions. This was not possible with the earlier version released in 2016. FA-18E/F and EA-18G Military Class Desk Cmdr. Luke Davis describes how the newest iteration could be helpful in an emergency like an engine fire.

“During a single-engine approach, PLM helps to provide the pilot with a platform that feels very similar to a dual-engine approach, maximizing climb performance and helping the jet stay in balanced flight,” said Davis. “PLM provides the pilot with a reliable, stable platform to safely recover at the ship or airfield.”

Aside from its enhancements to aircraft landings, PLM has also changed the way the fleet trains. New pilots for the F/A-18 E and F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler now train with PLM from day one. Additionally, air wings take this capability on carrier qualification deployments, reducing training requirements by up to 50%. PLM enables aircrew to maximize flight time to train for a diverse and ever-expanding assortment of tactical and strategic missions.

From fiction to the flight line
So, how did this game-changing capability go from fiction to the flight line? Formally called the Maritime Augmented Guidance with Integrated Controls for Carrier Approach and Recovery Precision Enabling Technologies (MAGIC CARPET), engineers at the Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division developed the business case and concept of the new tool. They worked with the Office of Naval Research to bring this concept to life and prove its feasibility. According to F/A-18 A-D Deputy Program Manager Dave Howe, intense collaboration between stakeholders served as the linchpin for this effort.

“PMA-265, after discussions with the fleet and Air Boss, embraced the development and received funding for the PLM project in 2016. We formed a team of flight control experts and fostered relationships across NAVAIR [Naval Air Systems Command] and industry enabling the success of the PLM contract,” said Howe.

“Within NAVAIR, [Air Test and Evaluation Squadron] VX-23 pilots along with flight controls engineers were the Navy's bread and butter. We also worked hand-in-hand with our industry partners to tackle acquisition challenges. The ability to reduce training and increase readiness by decreasing aircraft landings took precedence. Together, we remained fleet focused,” he continued.

NAVAIR began fielding the upgraded PLM to the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G fleet in fall of 2020. Howe said hearing how Navy pilots are using the newest PLM to safely land motivates him in his daily tasks.

“The warfighters are why we come to work every day. Our teams want the ability to provide more products and solutions that assist in both training and mission execution,” said Howe. “Thinking innovatively and incorporating new technologies are part of our daily work.”"

Source: https://www.navair.navy.mil/news/Navys- ... 42021-1541


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by spazsinbad » 23 Dec 2021, 20:23

PLM Precision Landing Mode for da hornets keeps on giving - the 2 page PDF from NAN Spring 2021 Naval Aviation News:

https://www.navair.navy.mil/sites/g/fil ... 21_web.pdf (5Mb)
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by spazsinbad » 06 Jul 2022, 22:47

rheonomic wrote:
quicksilver wrote:MAGIC CARPET is simply the SH branding of what was first implemented in F-35C. It was/is called Delta Flight Path and evidence of same was demonstrated in the pre-DT-1 shore-based work-ups and the DT-1 event at-sea in 2014. Buddy Denham and others from NAVAIR substantially involved.

I'd also argue that MAGIC CARPET/DFP are closely related to the STOVL CLAWs for the B as all are examples of 'task-tailored control laws'... For those with access to AIAA ARC (I tried to find a 'free' copy online but didn't see anything, sorry), the paper "Project MAGIC CARPET: “Advanced Controls and Displays for Precision Carrier Landings”" is rather interesting: https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2016-1770

WAyWaYwAYback I could not download this PDF (I think?) today this same PDF was found here for free download so it is attached below with some text excerpts. It is a wide-ranging article for F-35C as well as F-35B UK SRVLs et al.
Project MAGIC CARPET: Advanced Controls and Displays for Precision Carrier Landings
12 Aug 2015 James W. Denham, Jr. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, 20670

“Maritime augmented guidance with integrated controls for carrier approach and recovery precision enabling technologies (MAGIC CARPET) is an enhanced set of flight control laws and Head-Up Display symbology for F/A-18E/F/G aircraft which seek to reduce the unique pilotage skills required for shipboard landings. Integrated Direct Lift Control significantly simplifies ‘ball flying’ by allowing for repeatable and precise flightpath changes using lift as directly commanded via longitudinal stick displacements. Additionally, ‘Delta Path’ control mode adds a feature that allows the aircraft to capture, maintain, and return to the 'ideal' 3.5 degree glideslope, nearly hands off. This essentially de-couples the glideslope task from the lineup task. The enhanced HUD symbology provides much improved direct pilot feedback cues on the magnitude of glideslope and lineup corrections. Recent shipboard flight test completed aboard the USS Bush (CVN-77) in April 2015 confirmed a 50% reduction in touchdown dispersion as well as greatly reducing overall carrier approach workload as observed through real-time pilot feedback. Test results, pilot comments and lessons learned will be presented....”

...I. Introduction...
The US Navy led a joint flight research program with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD) with the goal of reducing the workload and training burden for future Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft. This program used a unique, UK developed, fly-by-wire Vector-thrust Aircraft for Advanced Control (VAAC) Harrier aircraft. This aircraft allowed the engineers to program the flight control software in a rapid development environment where changes could be made overnight and uploaded to the aircraft. This was achieved because the mechanical flight controls were back-driven by servo commands from the Flight Control Computer under the monitoring of the safety pilot who could disconnect the system if any flight safety concern emerged during test. Under this effort, a wide range of flight control concepts were investigated and mapped to various cockpit control inceptors.

What emerged from this research was a radical control concept called Unified STOVL Control in which longitudinal stick commanded flight path, the left hand inceptor (i.e. throttle) commanded acceleration and lateral stick commanded bank angle. These axes were also decoupled such that if the flight path was set, the pilot could accelerate and decelerate along that axis without impacting flight path. All of the commands were managed by the full authority FCS. The pilot simply maintained a front side approach control strategy during the approach to hover, i.e. longitudinal stick resulted in increasing or decreasing flight path, throttle commanded acceleration / deceleration or in a center detent held speed. Gone from this concept was manual manipulation of engine power, nozzle lever angle, and pitch attitude. All of that was managed by the FCS giving the pilot direct command of flight path angle and speed. The successful completion of this research program resulted in this highly augmented control being the preferred control solution for the F-35B STOVL aircraft. The detailed results of the VAAC program were previously reported in Ref (2). This highly augmented concept of control gave the pilot direct command of flightpath, speed and bank angle while providing the necessary axis decoupling required. The F-35B completed its initial Development Testing in October of 2011 aboard the USS Wasp. The results confirmed the ease and intuitive control strategy originally developed under the VAAC program.

Based on the success of this program, the US Navy turned to the next most difficult aviation task which was the fixed wing carrier landing task. The same principles applied in the VAAC program were proposed to simplify carrier landings by providing direct command of flight path and line-up which were decoupled from one another while the flight control system managed on-speed approach angle of attack. Similar ideas were considered by the US Navy in the mid 1970’s and 80’s, Ref (3 & 4). The ONR provided initial seed funding of ~$200,000 for NAVAIR to demonstrate the potential of this type of control concept for carrier landings under the project name MAGIC CARPET. The initial research results showed substantial promise to eliminate the majority of the pilot workload in performing a carrier landing. So positive was the response that additional research funding was provided to mature both the control laws as well as the head up displays. The success of this research effort was demonstrated to the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) Leadership who saw this capability as a revolutionary change on how we conduct fleet operations today. Based on the research success, the Chief of Naval Air Forces, (CNAF) requested the F/A-18E/F program office to sponsor a low cost demonstration of this control law capability in the Super Hornet at sea. US Navy engineers met with Boeing and provided the detailed design changes required to meet this demonstration goal. The remainder of this paper will discuss the control strategy along with the test results accomplished aboard the USS Bush in April 20-22, 2015....

...D.Head-Up Display Symbology
The joint US-UK VAAC research program also established a fundamental and underlying principle that flight control improvements must be accompanied by pilot Head-UP Display (HUD) and heads down displays that are task tailored to the engaged mode of control. The displays should provide the pilot with cues that indicate both the error in the desired control parameter, the commanded change to address the error and mode engagement status. The task tailored displays then provide the pilot with the added situational awareness that allow expeditious, accurate and repeatable corrections in both glideslope and line-up. The display is intuitive and consistent with the control mode that is engaged. Much of these concepts have been researched by both NASA in Ref (8), and the VAAC program in reference (9). The VAAC program researched ship relative display symbology as a part of a strategy to provide the pilot with HUD displays that allowed accurate touchdown dispersion such that the Royal Navy could establish a Shipboard Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) capability which allows improved weapons and fuel bring back weight over a vertical landing. Because the aircraft is landing on the Queen Elizabeth Class carrier with approximately 35 knots of relative ground speed and braking to a stop on the deck, accurate touchdown is fundamental to the successful execution of the SRVL. The outcome of this research was a set of shipboard HUD display improvements that are ship-relative or compensated for ship speed. This is similar to the ship-relative displays that are used in the marine variant of the Rafale M aircraft. The accurate touchdown performance for the SRVL is nearly identical to the conventional carrier landing task but separated by about 80 knots of relative approach speed difference. So, the US Navy has worked in concert with the MoD to enhance and improve both ship relative HUD concepts along with new deck mounted optical landing systems discussed in reference (9).

The results of the SRVL efforts were expanded under the MAGIC CARPET research effort with the focus on the carrier landing task. The design principles were to provide the pilot with HUD display symbology that gave improved observations of glideslope error, line-up error, command magnitudes and specific modal awareness as to which control law mode was engaged. In addition, the pilot was provided with both Hands-On-Throttle-And-Stick (HOTAS) commands as well as information on the heads down multifunction displays....

...V. Conclusions
This research effort has demonstrated the outstanding benefits that highly augmented control brings to the carrier landing task performance. The Integrated Direct Lift Command when combined with the Delta Flight Path Control allows the pilot to make precise, repeatable and consistent performance when landing on the aircraft carrier. The performance achieved in this testing has shown a 50% reduction in touchdown dispersions which will lead to improvements in the current aircraft boarding rate during deployed operations. Improving the aircraft boarding rate will allow the ship to recover all aircraft in a timely manner reducing the steaming time into wind during the recovery cyclic operations. The intuitive nature of the control concept when combined with the task tailored HUD symbology provide the pilot with an easy method to observe errors in glideslope and line-up which will reduce the time required to become proficient for the ab initio carrier pilot as well as retaining the skill for longer periods between carrier landings. This combination of ease of control and learning will result in a significant reduction in the required training during field carrier landing practice which will have substantial reductions in the cost to train and maintain fleet pilot landing proficiency. The augmented control has also demonstrated a very consistent and tight distribution in vertical velocity at deck impact. This lower mean and 1-sigma deviation in vertical velocity and pitch attitude will have beneficial improvements in aircraft fatigue life impacts which will likely extend available service life.

The US Navy has embraced this control method for both the F/A-18E/F and the F-35C aircraft. In the words of the pilots that flew the augmented modes….”this will be a game changer” to how the Navy conducts deployed operations. This will improve the carrier operational efficiency, performance, and safety when recovering aircraft aboard the carrier. All of this will reduce the cost associated with the carrier landing training expended today and allow the Navy to use these savings for additional mission training proficiency prior to fleet deployment operations. NAVAIR continues to align both the F/A-18E/F and F-35C augmented controls so that both aircraft provide identical controls and displays for fleet deployment. As of this release, the Navy is planning to introduce this augmented control to the fleet beginning in the 4th quarter of 2016 in the F/A-18E/F/G aircraft with the F-35C having this control mode when it achieves its initial operational capability in 2018.”

Source: https://bunker2.zlibcdn.com/dtoken/d21c ... 6-1770.pdf (0.8Mb)
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