Posted on 04/26/2011 12:27:33 PM PDT by BwanaNdege
This helo is too light for that role. But it would be great support.
D’OH!!!!!
Yes, I did. My mistake.
Jack.
That looks like an early Kaman “Eggbeater”, two rotor masts set at a slight angle to each other with the blades intermeshing.
The Sikorsky’s have both counter-rotating rotors on co-axial masts.
That was one wild helo! Too bad they decided to cancel it.
It seems to me the best bet for selling to the Pentagon (and Congress) is to avoid the “bleeding edge” of technology. Make it solid and affordable, with lots of aces up your sleeve in the form of room for growth.
It took Bell a while to learn, but look how far they’ve stretched the original Jet Ranger to the current OH-58 Kiowa. Northrup did the same with the F-5 -> YF-17 -> F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
Sikorsky has kept the CH-53 in play for a long time as has Lockheed with the C-130.
Of course, it never hurts to have someone like LBJ pulling the strings for you! ;-)
Your dad did quite a job with the 53 Echo! got out of the Corps before they hit the Fleet, so I never got a chance to climb all over one. 13,000 HP going into that transmission! WOW!
The Delta had about 8,000 HP and the trans weighed about 2,500 lbs. IIRC, it had 300,000 ft-lbs torque on the main mast!
It sure was a kick to fly!
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