CH-47 Control System

Technical Animation work for Army pilot training systems. Check out how i rig an insanely complex fully mechanical control system from scratch. The entirety of the system is controlled by only 4 points down at the beggining of the system. Just like real life!

I put together the entire control system from separate parts files and created the IK control rig. This system connects the pilot's control sticks to the dual rotors on top of the helicopter. The system is a combination of mechanical connections under the pilot up into the control closet behind the pilot seats where it becomes a hydro-mechanical system before being transferred back into mechanical connections to the rotors.

The first video shows the system above the control closet that transfers controls from the ILCA in the control closet to the rotors. This video shows the mockup test rig created to test functionality before creating the final bone-based control rig. The full render videos below that show the entire system, minus the rotors themselves.

These animations only begin to show the complexity of the model and rig as there are tons of unseen internal components within the control closet as well. All of these interconnected parts are controlled by just a few controls designed for easy animation so you can actually move the stick and the system functions as designed.