AP IMPACT: New Army chopper overheats (among other problems)

Associated Press ^ | October 9, 2007 | AARON C. DAVIS

[decimon]

This is not good.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

European-designed helicopters

Never send a socialist to do a real man's work.

[True Republican Patriot]

This appears to be a full blown Disaster.Cancel the darn order and buy American. 1400 lbs of firewater is almost 50% less than the standard bucket. You cant work on two patients at a time sounds to be a real Deal Breaker1 But the best one is to have a cockpit temp in excess of 1104 deg. on an 80 deg. day. What happens when the outside temp hits 110 deg. as it does in the Southwest all the time. Sounds like $2.5 BILLION of European Crap.

[proudusvet]

I totally agree with you and the report, as of right now, The National Training Center(NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, has about four of the new helicopters, they are replacing the Blackhawk, as an air ambulance, and let me tell you, besides overheating, the space for injured soldiers is very small, cramped and lack of equipment, i heard lots of complaints, from the crew chiefs and pilots, they complained about the overheating and the lack of power, on the engine and the winch, which is located on the upper side of the frame,the Lakota is actually a helicopter designed for the European theater of operations, most likely the western part of Europe, where is cooler. I am glad that finally someone is looking at this very important issue,,, i forgot, the Blackhawks are being shipped to the Sandbox

[jettester]

You know, removing air-conditioning is not like changing the material of the seat covers (a rather simple change). Cooling, especially the kind that is tapped for avionics, is critical and should have been caught before the flight testing phase. If the avionics suite changed drastically over the commercial variant, a full-scale mock-up to test and measure cooling and temperature would have found this out earlier. Or, if the equipment is similar, the Army (or, much better the manufacturer) should have paid to gut a commercial version of its’ air-conditioning to get the temperature impacts way before the flight testing of the production models. The Program Manager for both the contractor and the Army ought to be fired or sweeping the parking lots over this one.

[decimon]

I totally agree with you and the report...

Thanks. I was just going by the report and I'm sorry to hear it's right if this deal is going to go through.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't know beforehand something like what is the interior space of the chopper. Amazing.

[decimon]

The Program Manager for both the contractor and the Army ought to be fired or sweeping the parking lots over this one.

There's a better chance that I'll be sweeping around his Lexus.

[A.A. Cunningham]

From August:

Eurocopter chopper has serious problems, Pentagon testers say

The same outfit that threw $8 billion down the rathole known as Comanche chose not to buy air conditioning on helicopters that come equipped with air conditioning for commercial operators. Brilliant.

[Doohickey]

Hopefully things have changed since I got out, but ten years ago the ‘60 wasn’t noted for its reliability.

[VOA]

“European-designed helicopters”

Must have hired some “emeritus” engineers that worked on some of
the Renaults of the 1950s-1960s.

I’ll never forget the comments my otherwise very-polite Canadian uncle
would make about the d-mned Renault he owned.
He said he sold it even before he was completely sure that he could
afford to replace it with “a real car”!!!

[proudusvet]

is very small, a regular litter, fits, but if monitors are needed, is very hard to work on a patient, specially if patient needs cpr or airway management

[proudusvet]

is very small, a regular litter, fits, but if monitors are needed, is very hard to work on a patient, specially if patient needs cpr or airway management

[org.whodat]

The retrofitting will cost at least $10 million and will come out of the Army's budget, according to the Army.

Hell no it will not, it will come out of the tax payers pocket. They need to fire about half of the army's top offices and replace them with some chimps.

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

Kee Riced All My Tea.

If you buy a cheap little helicopter to perform light utility missions in CONUS only—not in combat—and you don’t choose to buy the air conditioner and use it in the desert, then it’s gonna be hot. Doh!

The two-patient medevac situation is a detractor, but how often are you going to simultaneously evac two patients that need critical care enroute?

You want expensive Lexus utility helos? I’m sure the Army will oblige.

You cannot get Better, Faster, Cheaper in one Happy meal: you only get to choose one from column A and one from column B.

TC

[Drago]

Euro-crap...buy American.
http://www.sikorsky.com/sac/Home/0,9746,CLI1_DIV69_ETI541,00.html
http://www.bellhelicopter.textron.com/en/index.cfm

The new Marine One is European also. Too bad...it is the New World Order I guess.

[BfloGuy]

EADS = Airbus. Surprised I haven’t seen that mentioned.

[JSteff]

“1400 lbs of firewater”

We could just as easily be talking about 1400 or gas or any other cargo.

Interesting though; Lakota-Firewater, too hot for the south west??? Sounds like problems from the 1880’s.

(no insult intended for any native american freeper friends)

[JSteff]

“The new Marine One is European also.”

What? Marine One is not American made?

Unbelievable.

What model is it?

[Minutemen]

Our buffoon politicians experimenting with little European WEENIECOPTERS? Why? They should be lined up and........

[monkeycard]

Should be buying American.