Who was behind the HeliSafe® TA project?
Edgar Uhl: The project was launched by Autoflug GmbH in 1999 and came to an end in 2007. Our company specializes in the development and production of safety equipment, seats and electronic sensors for helicopters. The original consortium initially included eight partners from seven EU member countries, but as the project advanced, four new partners joined our ranks. All of the partners operate in the aeronautical or automobile manufacturing sectors.

Why was the HeliSafe®TA project launched in the first place?
E. U.: Our main goal was to provide better protection for people in helicopters. Helicopters are extremely complex aircraft, which are normally used for tricky missions. Over certain types of terrain, the helicopter is sometimes the only possible means of transportation.
Helicopters also operate in difficult weather conditions and perform search and rescue operations. Current regulations have focused mainly on overall protection: Energy-absorbing airframes and seats, fire-resistant fuel systems and aircraft structures which maintain their integrity in the event of a crash. Experience we’ve obtained from real-life situations has convinced us we need to do more. We are developing innovative systems that increase safety for occupants inside the cabin.

What did the project set out to achieve?
E. U.: From the outset, we focused on protecting people. We took inspiration from the automobile industry, where safety standards have improved dramatically. However, unlike cars, many different types of helicopter accidents are possible, and they often occur in inaccessible zones. Our priority therefore was to make it possible for passengers and crew to get out of the aircraft as quickly as possible with no external assistance.

Could you talk us through the project’s main stages?
E. U.: The first step was to gather all the available information throughout the world on helicopter accidents. We were then able to devise standard crash scenarios, which we used to perform accident tests in real-life conditions. This first step provided us with a whole range of data on the damage inflicted during accidents. We then performed more precise tests, focusing on seats, to gather comprehensive reference data that we used to design safety equipment for the cockpit and the cabin. A digital simulator was built and validated by comparing its results with the test results. Based on the seat testing, we developed a safety and protection concept that we integrated in the digital simulator. This phase helped us to optimize our equipment and make it as safe as possible. We then manufactured the parts we had designed and installed them in the test mock-ups so we could perform a series of seat tests. At the end of the project, we performed another test in real-life conditions on actual equipment to specifically try out the new concepts we had developed.

What were the results of this project?
E. U.: We have developed a safe cabin concept that includes special safety seats, airbags, optimized safety restraint harnesses with automatic inertia reels, safety belts with pretensioners and load limiters. Our experiments have demonstrated that these devices can significantly reduce severe or fatal injuries. In horizontal or vertical crash test scenarios, injuries are reduced by 30 to 40%. The results of our research were sent to the regulatory authorities to show them the new technology that is available for improving helicopter safety.