Case story: Analysis of seating comfort in MH-60R Seahawk helicopter

Pilots of the MH-60R Seahawk helicopters often spend several hours in the helicopter during missions. The current seat in the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter lacks lumbar support and results in discomfort for the pilots.

The Danish Ministry of Defence contracted AnyBody Technology to perform an analysis of the current seated posture to document and compare it to a seat with a virtual lumbar support.

Motion capture data of three subjects was captured for three different hovering tasks. Internal forces of the pilots’ body in these cases was estimated by computer simulation and compared to the seat with virtually added lumbar support.

The lumbar support results in more upright posture of the trunk and a 16.8 % reduction in the compression force across the lumbar joints.

Attached Files

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2024.03.04 - Danish Ministry of Defence: MH60R-Seahawk seating analysis — 1.0	Download