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Blackhawk replacement- Bell 280 Valor
Warbirds
Member Posts: 16,839 ✭✭✭✭
I feel like you guys are really gonna hate this one. Its a small V22.
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It ain't Great Grandpappy's biplane, that's for sure!
Looks to be a very complicated drive arrangement. I think Bell tried something like this in the 50s. Technically much improved one would assume.
Brad Steele
The major issue with those is loss of one engine. You have to have a cross-link drive that allows the good engine to power both rotors.
It was pretty much solved decades ago with the Chinook helicopter. That heavy lifter uses two engines that run a single transmission, which in turn runs two drive shafts to the front and rear rotors.
The V-22 is set up a bit differently, but there is still a crosslink drive shaft between the two engine/rotor pods.
The whole point of tilt-rotors is cruise speed. Helicopters are limited in how fast they can go by the fact that the blade on one side is moving backward relative to the airflow. At some point, that blade has zero airspeed, and thus zero lift.
Sounds like the V-280 will have the shaft linking the two props.
Almost 82 feet wide. How wide is a Blackhawk?
I remembered back when all those Ospreys were crashing. I thought they cancelled them altogether. Then I saw them flying out of Djibouti when I was there.
Ospreys are still flying here, see them almost daily. They are not in combat though.
I can't believe they picked that complicated mess over the Sikorsky Defiant X. A much better design, IMO.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
It's no where near 82 feet. I can't imagine trying to get that thing into the same spaces as a Blackhawk. The body of a Blackhawk is 21 feet with extended range tanks installed, and the main rotor is 53 feet 8 inches in diameter. So this thing is enormous in comparison.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
From the Wiki;
4th line down, Width: 81.79 ft. I'm assuming that's rotor tip to rotor tip and the props are 35 feet in diameter.
General characteristics
I just looked it up and a Chinook is 99 ft tip to tip with 60' diameter props.
That is an amazing feat of engineering that I prefer not to be in.
Yep. And the chinook is no blackhawk. Of course the Chinook is one of the fastest helos out there, so there's that, but they certainly don't fly the same missions as the blackhawk.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
You can hear a Chinook coming(or going) for MILES! I would assume that this smaller version is only slightly less loud. The Blackhawk will be around for years to come. MOST of our Air Force fleet are VERY old, but they are tried and true also!
Actually the Chinook flies all the Blackhawk missions and also the missions the Blackhawk can't fly.
I worked on both, we called the Blackhawk a lawn dart.
I thought the Defiant with counterrotating rotors would get the award.
One would assume the final configuration will have a pivoting wing and rotor blades like the Osprey to allow for transport in a C-5 or C-17.
Prototypes always seem to look cleaner and more efficient than the final product.
Brad Steele
Wonder how those stack up against the Blackhawk in terms of "Survivability in a Crash?" I know the Blackhawk was Way up there, I understand in large part to their shock absorbing landing gear.
My Brother went down in one (Blackhawk) in Desert Storm. He was Pilot. 160th SOAR (Special Operations Air Regiment) of the 101st. He was inserting a Delta team in the dark prior to the kick off. Flying knap of the earth with Night Vision, when a Sand Storm hit them. Kissed a dune with the nose and cartwheeled it. Saw images of the crash from above and on the ground. No one should have got out.
Brother put his face through the windshield, broke both ankles, etc. Came to hanging from he seat straps, trying to figure out why his fingers were in the sand. Got himself out and managed to drag one or two with him despite his injuries.
Not sure how many died. It's not something he talks about.