206L Main Blade 007 Strain-Gaged and Ready to Fly

Main rotor blade flight testing requires loads to be measured at various stations along the blade. To prepare 206L main blade 007 for flight test, our engineers and techs spent countless hours placing, bonding, wiring and coating 36 strain gages at seven stations on the upper and lower surfaces of the blade. All of this prep work was completed at the VHA facility.

With the strain gages installed and wired, the blade and its mate–blade 008–were trucked out to our hangar for calibration. The series of calibration tests used static weights in various configurations to test the gages’ chord, torsion, and flap readings.