Aaron Fox
Well-known member
Given precedent? 2030s at the earliest, 2040s at the latest. I mean we had planes literally falling apart mid-air during the War on Terror...
Warbirds Thread
- Thread starter PsihoKekec
- Start date
paulobrito
Well-known member
And that is the kind of bird I fly, long time ago, during my service time.
(Note: these are some of the few without some glaring music in the background, other one using Where Eagles Dare theme in the background while also showing other helicopter designs)
The Fl-282 'Hummingbird' intermeshing rotor helicopter. The world's first serial production helicopter. From what I understood, it is also one of the easiest to fly. As in 'a grandmother with some basic sub-100 hour training can do it' easy.
The US had its own designs but they were fraught with mechanical and reliability issues... at least until they managed to nick a few surviving Fl-282 and had one of the designers help them out, which eventually led to the HH-43 Husky:
It also has a grandson in the K-MAX.
It must be noted that using intermeshing rotors is more efficient than pretty much every other design I've seen, at least from what I've gleaned. Then again, the K-MAX can literally haul itself in external cargo weight.
Why are they not more prolific then?
Aaron Fox
Well-known member
Largely because a certain other company (*cough*Sikorsky*cough*) went out of their way to dominate the helicopter market and no one really knowing what the fuck to do with helicopters until Vietnam.
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
How hard was navigation, when flying low level?
And that is the kind of bird I fly, long time ago, during my service time.
paulobrito
Well-known member
Well, is a very basic plane, well before the today's aided toys. And the portuguese versions are very spartan, if you follow my saying.
You need to have the map / area in your mind and constantly look to assert your location, or contact the base for a better fix. Not much fun, and requiring a lot of attention. Me, i have a lot of time a subset of the area map strapped to one of my legs to a quick look to re-assert where I'm.
This is the cockpit - no modern navigation aids.
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gral
Well-known member
What I've heard is intermeshing rotors are extremely good for lifting things, but the price they pay is helicopters with intermeshing rotors are slow. For the K-MAX, it doesn't matter, but there are other applications that this is less desireable.
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
I mean the BUFF is scheduled to fly till the mid 2040s at the earliest and C-130s are scheduled to remain in production till the end of the decade at the minimum. And DC-3 are still being remanufactured to a basically new condition.
Aaron Fox
Well-known member
From what I understand, not really. At least, not slower than your usual helicopter.
bintananth
behind a desk
First thing I noticed: Those props are spinning just shy of and very close to the camera's frame rate.
paulobrito
Well-known member
That's flying really low. The local police wants to talk with the crew about some missing signals...
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
That reminds of a Cold War joke:
A pilot enters commanders office and gets immediately cited for flying too low.
''Oh come on boss you never cite us when we come with a fir branch stuck stuck in the plane.''
''Fir? It was a goddamn fern this time!''
A pilot enters commanders office and gets immediately cited for flying too low.
''Oh come on boss you never cite us when we come with a fir branch stuck stuck in the plane.''
''Fir? It was a goddamn fern this time!''
A P-38 going with the Patrouille de France Aerial Acrobatic team in their equally sleek Alpha Jets.
bintananth
behind a desk
The P-38 is an interesting airplane. I would recommend reading Tony LeVier's biography (he was a Lockheed test pilot, among other things) for all the gory details of why diving a P-38 without airbrakes (or failing to use them if it did have them) was a horrible idea.A P-38 going with the Patrouille de France Aerial Acrobatic team in their equally sleek Alpha Jets.
