Threading a needle wearing boxing gloves.
This amazing series of photographs shows the loading of a C17 at RAF brize Norton with the first of a batch of Merlin helicopters bound for Afghanistan.
Not much to say except, brilliant..
Think DefenceUK Defence Issues and the odd container or two
Oh! Timing, as I said in the comment I just posted on the other post the Merlin is a very tight fit. If people notice the rotor hub is above the level of the internal central wing and the aircraft is right on the deck this makes me question the suitability of this aircraft for air transport. It also makes me question the suitability for the support helicopter role especially since there is nothing smaller in the support helicopter fleet that could be transported and used sooner. Also there is no way that a Merlin will fit in an A400M limiting our transport options to the precious few C-17’s.
The reason I say this is because something so big and difficult to squeeze into a C-17 is not really suited to the main support helicopter role, it really adds to the list of reasons of why we need a smaller helicopter.
Looking at the pics, all I can say is well done.
As a thought, the Super Puma had a ‘kneeling undercarriage’ option for operating with limited head room, given the above pictures its something worth considering for a future support helicopter as well as a folding tail unit – take note MOD.
Luckily a Puma fits on the back of a C-17 with just the blades off.
Well done indeed very tight fit. The UH-60 fits the bill for an air mobile support helicopter and i think the AW149 would be a good option if we told AW to add a manual folding tail and rotors.