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Hot new helicopter/rotorcraft news

IKE said:
I was told recently that the Army has a statutory limit on the number of fixed wings aircraft it owns. Turns out that's false, but there are agreements with USAF limiting Army's FW capabilities. So, I bet you'll never catch a general admitting that tiltrotors are VTOL FW aircraft.

From the Google:
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The head of the Army's Fixed Wing procurement directorate was visiting in my office a few weeks ago. (he's a War College buddy of my boss). He had some interesting insights. Fixed Wing aircraft aren't going away in the Army anytime soon. And there is plenty of constructive debate going on regarding the current transformation in Army Aviation.
 
ChuckMK23 said:
The way I read the article M1, LM and Bell made the cut.

M1 and LM both are partnering with Robinson on R66.
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That's aligned with what I was saying. Leonardo's T119 is out, then. As much as I don't like that aircraft compared to comparable platforms, it's much more like a operational military helicopter than the 505 or R66. The Army is clearly going "lowest cost, technically acceptable" (LCTA), which I think is a great way to get people killed.
 
phrogdriver said:
That's aligned with what I was saying. Leonardo's T119 is out, then. As much as I don't like that aircraft compared to comparable platforms, it's much more like a operational military helicopter than the 505 or R66. The Army is clearly going "lowest cost, technically acceptable" (LCTA), which I think is a great way to get people killed.
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I am going to guess that even though the same aircraft is being used, the differentiation between M1 and LM will be the contracting and labor model. With one diving for the cheap seats using lower paid CFI staff who came from flight schools operating R22/R44 Private - Commercial - CFI and already have the minimum hours in type to meet the SFAR for Robinson helicopters to act as PIC.

Purely a guess on my part but to your point, it's all going to be about costs.
 
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12 hour mission in an H-60 out to sea - ballsy.

After pulling off a major open-ocean rescue hundreds of miles off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California, two U.S. Air Force helicopters landed at a Mexican airport last week on the mission’s return leg. But as the Arizona-based crews rested and slept after a grueling 12 hours of flying, a wave of online rumors and misinformation erupted around their arrival.

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taskandpurpose.com

Air Force crews scrambled to find a pilot to fly rescue mission far out to sea

Despite internet rumors when Air Force crews arrived at a Mexican airport, the mission's real challenge was finding enough pilots to fly it.
taskandpurpose.com taskandpurpose.com
 
Here's a scan of the original advertisement featuring what was the American Eurocopter (Now Airbus) AS350 for the Army New Training Helicopter (NTH) program. Bell would later win the contract with the TH-67 based largely on the Navy experience with the TH-57.

I flew N94TH in February 1993 as part of the trials and was asked to provide inputs as a CNATRA STAN guy in the HT's. A number of Navy TPS dudes did more advanced evaluation.

N94TH was interesting because of the modification that included replacing the stock Arielle engine with a Rolls/Allison 250 series motor and incorporating a standard collective mounted twist grip engine control from the stock floor mounted control lever.

Plenty of power, stable, delightful to fly. I recall full autos were no big deal and after the company instructor demo, I did a few of my own. I recall the avionics being all King and gauges and instruments all of the steam variety. A piece of red yarn was installed on the center canopy frame and was part of the type certificate.

At the end of the day the "wrong way rotor" was an issue for the US Army.

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