Advanced VTOL Technologies (AVT) is an Australian owned company that has been proudly conducting helicopter - ship interface analysis for over 11 years for the Australian Defence Force and a number of other Defence Forces and commercial organisations around the world. AVT is the leading provider of helicopter - ship analysis services in Australia.
AVT was initially founded in 1998 in Melbourne Australia under the name Beggs-Howe to provide contract services to the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). Since its inception the company has provided over 30 highly skilled personnel for some 60 contracts in the areas of Aerospace engineering, Software engineering and Human factors. Contract support has been provided for operational analysis, helicopter dynamics, helicopter-ship dynamics, simulation fidelity assessment, human in the loop simulation, computer simulation graphics, software engineering, computation fluid dynamics, human factors research and experimental research.
Since January 1998 the company has specialised in helicopter-ship dynamic interface simulation for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The company has been solely responsible for the development and maintenance of the DSTO owned Ondeck simulation software. AVT has significantly refined the software over the last 10 years to improve the codes fidelity and the number of helicopter types modelled. AVT now plans to use the core model as part of a real time ship based simulator aid to enhance ship and helicopter capability, improve safety and a tool for usage monitoring and airworthiness assessment. In recent times the company has begun to develop a capability in ship motion simulation analysis to support its ongoing helicopter-ship simulation activities. In 2005 AVT commenced providing international services to the Danish Navy, Swedish Navy and the New Zealand Navy to help define Ship-Helicopter Operational Limits (SHOL's) and help solve other operational issues. AVT has also provided technical On-deck analysis services for the Australian company Prism Defence and the UK company MacTaggart Scott. Recently AVT has been engaged in a scoping study as part of a NATO working group investigating Ship Quiescent Period Prediction.
AVT's mission is to provide the highest fidelity cost effective solution for helicopter-ship interface analysis. It is hoped that the work will lead to improvements in safety and usage monitoring and reduce the through life cost associated with operating in such an adverse environment.
Since 2003 the company has also been engaged in a research project to develop a VTOL UAV. Successful low rate hover control was realised in February 2007. The vehicle is currently being modified to improve high rate hover control.
