Flight Control systems for helicopter

Compact 4-axis autopilot

Civil Aviation
Civil helicopter

Thanks to its high level of integration, the Thales Compact Autopilot is designed for light and medium helicopters. The system weight is reduced by not requiring a main Flight Control Computer. While being compact, the Thales solution provides a very high level of safety, increases mission capability and availability.

FORCES

Compact, safe, proven

Thales Compact Autopilot offers 4-axis control for light and medium helicopters. It increases safety and mission availability without a main Flight Control Computer, reducing system weight and pilot workload.
Smart+ actuator tech

Built on next-gen Smart+ actuators hosting critical autopilot software (DAL A), the system enhances reliability and simplifies integration. Available for new programs or retrofit, with millions of flight hours in service.
Easy to integrate

Compact Autopilot supports 3- or 4-axis configs and can be integrated standalone or with existing avionics. Ideal for SAR, EMS, IFR/VFR missions, it provides hover and departure modes with advanced flight director logic.

Pilot-friendly automatic flight control system reducing workload

Until now Automatic Pilots were too heavy, too expensive especially for light helicopters. However, their missions, (SAR, EMS, Homeland security) increasingly call for low level and adverse weather flying, which invariably benefits from an AP.

The compact autopilot is an intuitive automatic flight control system that increases safety through reduced pilot workload. It provides stability augmentation, attitude retention and flight director modes such as altitude or heading hold and reduces the risk of aircraft incidents.

Thales in-line actuators provide continuous stability augmentation without any cyclic stick displacement, both hands-on and hands-off. The helicopter dynamics are seamlessly improved, from take-off to landing. Pilots of light helicopters will have the same control and autopilot characteristics as in larger more complex helicopters. A proven simplex or duplex architecture meets the needs for all kinds of demanding IFR and VFR missions

Since the very first autopilot development for the Concorde 60 years ago, Thales has developed a strong expertise in this domain with civil and military programs worldwide, including state-of-the-art 4-axis duplex helicopter AFCS, certified for single pilot IFR, SAR, and more. Today, Thales autopilots cumulated billions of flight hours with outstanding customer satisfaction level and developed a strong team with experts.

FEATURES

Compact Autopilot is built upon on the latest generation of smart actuator which integrates state-of-the-art technology and improvements designed by Thales. The Smart+ actuator is designed to directly host the autopilot and flight director software with a high level of criticality (DAL level A).

The system does not require a main Flight Control Computer anymore and thus decrease the weight. All improvements and specific designs aim to provide a very reliable high performance actuator required for the severe helicopter environment.

Compact Autopilot architecture is based on two sets of three Smart+ actuators providing a redundant dual autopilot (SAS + ATT), available in a 3 or 4 axis configuration with the capability to include Thales advanced software outer loops like Hover and Departure modes. The autopilot can be configured as standalone with control panel or integrated with existing avionics.

KEY FIGURES

10,000,000

of flight hours onboard more than 20 different helicopter types

60+

years of experience

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