The CREATE-AV Helios is a high-fidelity rotorcraft aeromechanics simulation software framework capable of modeling the full vehicle. Helios is currently used by U.S. Army and rotorcraft OEMs to support existing fleet and next-generation aircraft development.

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (May 16, 2025) – The acceleration of the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft development is a top priority of U.S. Army and Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll.

FLRAA, within the Army’s Future Vertical Lift initiative, will be the successor to the UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter. The Army is seeking an advanced platform, increased speed and range, enhanced maneuverability and a larger payload capacity. Initially to be fielded by 2030, senior Army leaders recently announced that they are moving development and production into the 2028 timeframe.

Crucial to that effort is the high-fidelity modeling and simulation capability from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center. Developed with the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments initiative, the CREATE-AV Helios is a high-fidelity rotorcraft aeromechanics simulation software framework capable of modeling the full vehicle. Helios is currently used by U.S. Army and rotorcraft original equipment manufacturers to support existing fleet and next-generation aircraft development.

In its earlier central processing units, or CPU, version, Helios’ computational cost was significant: full hover or forward flight simulations could require days or even weeks on some of the nation’s most powerful supercomputers.

“Simulation time and resources needed to perform the highly resolved simulation of the complete aircraft has been limiting the number of cases that we could execute,” said aerospace engineer Dr. Buvana Jayaraman.

So they built something new.

The graphics processing units, or GPU-capable Helios software was used to perform the first ever high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics overset simulation of the Bell XV-15 tiltrotor undergoing a transient conversion maneuver from hover to forward flight.

To address the rapidly evolving high-performance computing landscape the Helios development team created a new performance-portable version of the software. This new version, based on a single-source codebase, is designed to run efficiently on both CPU and graphics processing units platforms. A single-source codebase will ensure that all versions of Helios originate from and share a significant portion of the same underlying code.

The graphics processing units, or GPU-capable Helios software was used to perform the first ever high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics overset simulation of the Bell XV-15 tiltrotor undergoing a transient conversion maneuver from hover to forward flight, with one hour of wall clock time required per revolution of the rotors on a modest computational resource with 28 GPUs.

“The same simulation using CPU-only production version of Helios would require nearly 10 hours per revolution on several thousand CPU cores,” said Jayaraman. “This nearly tenfold speedup underscores the transformative potential of the new GPU-enabled, performance-portable Helios framework in enabling high-fidelity, time-accurate simulations of complex rotorcraft maneuvers that were previously infeasible due to computational limitations.”

With a significant reduction in turnaround time for the simulations, AvMC scientists enable the capability to significantly increase the number of simulations to sample the flight envelope for several operating conditions and extract performance metrics.

Helios can help to shorten development time and reduce program costs by reducing the number of flight tests required for verifying performance and design requirements, Jayaraman said.

“It enables a larger exploration of the design space. By simulating multiple configurations in parallel, Helios identifies the top candidates that meet mission specifications.”

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The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM, is Army Futures Command’s leader and integrator within a global ecosystem of scientific exploration and technological innovation. DEVCOM expertise spans eight major competency areas to provide integrated research, development, analysis and engineering support to the Army and DOD. From rockets to robots, drones to dozers, and aviation to artillery – DEVCOM innovation is at the core of the combat capabilities American Warfighters need to win on the battlefield of the future. For more information, visit devcom.army.mil/.