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Two unique sets of flight control laws were designed, tested and flown on the Army/NASA Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL) JUH-60A Black Hawk helicopter. The first set of control laws used a simple rate feedback scheme, intended to facilitate the first flight and subsequent flight qualification of the RASCAL research flight control system. The second set of control laws comprised a more sophisticated model-following architecture. Both sets of flight control laws were developed and tested extensively using "desktop-to-flight" modeling, analysis, and simulation tools. Flight test data matched the modelpredicted responses well, providing both evidence and confidence that future flight control development for RASCAL will be efficient and accurate.

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) Volpe Center is currently involved in a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) project to configure, deploy, and evaluate the capabilities of a transponder multilateration and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system that will perform aircraft tracking in the Gulf of Mexico offshore area. The Helicopter In-flight Tracking System (HITS) is being assessed for use in an offshore area where several hundred petroleum industry helicopter flights occur daily, and where there is currently little secondary surveillance radar coverage. There are also over-flights by aircraft to/from Mexico and CentraVSouth America.

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