The

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) is a tenant activity located at Fort Eustis,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. It is a directorate of the Aviation Development Directorate under the Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), a part of the

Research, Development and Engineering Command The Combat Capabilities Development Command, (DEVCOM, aka CCDC) (formerly the United States Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM)) is a subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command. RDECOM was tasked with "creatin ...

(RDECOM). Circa 2019 AATD was renamed the Technology Development Directorate - Aviation.

History

The predecessor organization of AATD was established as the Transportation Corps Board on 16 December 1944 at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The original mission of the organization was research and development of all modes of transportation for the newly formed Transportation Corp. In 1946 it was transferred to the Brooklyn Army Base,

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. The Directorate has been located at Fort Eustis since 1950.336.2.4 Records of the Transportation Corps Board
– Records of the Office of the Chief of Transportation CT/ref> The technology base pioneered for the

UH-60 Black Hawk The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift military utility helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted a design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS) ...

and the AH-64 Apache was established by AATD in the late 60s and 70s, and much of technological advancements have been developed and applied since then. These include

elastomeric An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus (E) and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of ''elas ...

bearings, elastic pitch beam

tail rotor The tail rotor is a smaller rotor mounted vertically or near-vertically at the tail of a traditional single-rotor helicopter, where it rotates to generate a propeller-like horizontal thrust in the same direction as the main rotor's rotation. ...

blade, crashworthy subsystems (e.g., fuel systems, landing gear, seating, structure), vibration reduction, aircrew and passenger restraint systems, Cockpit

Air Bag An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate in milliseconds during a collision and then deflate afterwards. It consists of an airbag cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation module, and an impact sensor. ...

System (CABS),

wire strike protection system The wire strike protection system (WSPS) is a mechanical wire cutter designed to mitigate the risk of wire strikes while flying helicopters at low level. History Between 1974 and 1979 wire strike accidents accounted for 8% of United States Army ...

(WSPS), the

General Electric T700 The General Electric T700 and CT7 are a family of turboshaft and turboprop engines in the class. Design and development In 1967, General Electric began work on a new turboshaft engine demonstrator designated the "GE12" in response to US Army i ...

and

LHTEC T800 The LHTEC T800 is a turboshaft engine for rotary wing applications. It is produced by the LHTEC (Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company), a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Honeywell. The commercial and export version is the CTS800. The ...

engines.

References

External links

AATD Home Page

AMRDEC Home Page

RDECOM Home Page

US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center
Military simulation United States Army aviation United States Army Materiel Command Research installations of the United States Army {{US-Army-stub