Tag: Helicopters
The Future of the RAF 16 – Vertical Lift #01 (Introduction)
Helicopters are noisy, expensive to buy, fuel inefficient, poor at altitude, difficult to fly, slow, don’t lift much, have very short range and quite ridiculous maintenance requirements yet we put up with all their foibles for two simple reasons, they can go places and do things other aircraft cannot. Being able to deliver and retrieve [...]
Airbags
Flotation devices have been used on helicopters for some time but this story from Defense Update caught my eye. The system is being displayed at Aero India by Aero Sekur and consists of a series of dual use flotation and shock attenuation bags. NASA carried out a series of helicopter crashes to investigate survival technologies [...]
Red Helicopters or Red Faces
Just when you thought the MoD could not be any more ham fisted they manage to completely screw something up so spectacularly it restores your faith in their rank incompetence. Widely covered in the press this week is the decision to abandon the £6 billion SAR-H PFI in the light of allegations of skulduggery and dodgy dealing. [...]
Where’s MASC?
A recent Parliamentary Answer had a rather surprising ommission Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex, Conservative) To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the remaining (a) establishment and (b) structure of the Fleet Air Arm is in terms of (i) manpower and (ii) aircraft. Nick Harvey (Minister of State (Armed Forces), Defence; North Devon, Liberal [...]
Chinook HC4 and HC5 – Project Julius
Good news from Boeing and the MoD this week. The Boeing UK Rotorcraft Support team has begun flight testing the first Chinook Mk4 helicopter for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Project Julius is the MoD’s name for the effort to modernize the current Royal Air Force Chinook fleet Project JULIUS will modify 38 Mk2/2A Chinooks [...]
Helicopter Maintenance
As damned useful as helicopters are a recent story from the MoD highlighted just how difficult it is to keep them safely flying. While specialist support crews in theatre conduct the day-to-day maintenance on the hi-tech helicopter, the aircraft also has a legion of engineering experts poised for action in the UK. Based at Attack Helicopter [...]
On the Subject of Innovation: Helicopter Developments
The test flight of the Eurocopter X³ technology demonstrator (First unveiled in February 2009) as shown another company‘s vision of the helicopter of the future. With the traditional ‘Penny Farthing’ layout beginning to reach its upper technological limit, alternative layouts and composite designs will need to be thoroughly investigated in the near future. The X³ (or X [...]
Flying Cranes – Time to Take Another Look
The advent of the Kamen K-MAX dedicated cargo lifter, with an unmanned variant, seems to have covered the base for a robust, battlefield logistics helicopter. Despite its excellent performance, it does have a number of notable disadvantages. Namely, it cannot carry troops, it has a single engine, only one crewman can squeeze into its cockpit [...]
A Helicopter Strategy
The UK doesn’t have, and never has had, an overarching coherent rotary aircraft strategy. When decisions are informed by industrial expediency, short term budgetary pressure, knee jerk reactions forced by existing inadequacies and a complete lack of inter service coordination the result is precisely what we have now and to add insult to injury, acquisition [...]
Pallets and Containers
Completing our look at logistics I am going to delve into the complex world of pallets. Anyone thinking that pallet dimensions would be coordinated with vehicle dimensions, aircraft hold dimensions and ISO containers is in for a shock! We know that ISO containers are the desired method of shipping by road, rail and sea. Their [...]
Remind Me Again Why We Need Lynx Wildcat
The Lynx Mk9A has been in Afghanistan since May this year and are performing rather well. This is a report from may this year Commenting on the new(ish) aircraft Deputy Squadron Commander, Captain Pete Marfleet said; “It’s fantastic to have the new Lynx MK9A with its upgraded engines as it means we can be here [...]
RAF Merlin Recovery in Afghanistan
A US blog, first alerted me to this story a few days ago. With a keen eye, the author had spotted a couple of images from the USMC media operation in Helmand. Because there seemed to be no coverage in any UK media outlets I was a little reticent about covering it, fearing that it [...]
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