New Helicopter for the Air Force, September 2018
The Air Force announced that it has awarded a $378 million order for four MH-139 helicopters. The MH-139 is to replace the UH-1N, the USAF version of the famed Huey. The four helicopters ordered are the first of some 84 machines to be procured within a $2.38 billion contract. According to Ms. Heather Wilson, Secretary of the Air Force, “strong competition drove down the costs for the program, resulting in a savings of $1.7 billion to the taxpayer.”[1] An MH-139 for the Air Force, to replace the UH-N1. MH-139 is a variant of the Leonardo AW-139 / Photo: courtesy Boeing...
Learn MoreKaman K-240 HTK-1-K Remotely Controlled Helicopter
Bloomfield, CT -1957: Kaman Aircraft senior project engineer, Robert C. Mack, flew, was is reputed to be, the first pilotless robot helicopter; adding to the growing interest in such efforts as drones, guided missiles, satellites. . . The K-240 HTK-1-K was directed by radio signals from the ground by Mr. Mack. The robot helicopter lifted off vertically, hovered, flew forward, backward, sidewards, then landed. The control element is based on simplicity, to the extent that the operator, like Robert Mack, does not have to be cockpit qualified. Kaman K-240 HTK-1-K robot or remotely controlled helicopter. Note there is no pilot...
Learn MoreFort Rucker Takes Novel Energy Crisis Action: It Salvages Crankcase Oil!
Looking Back – 1974 / Fort Rucker, Alabama: Army Aviation went out its way to help out in the energy crisis. First the standard actions: Shutting lights in unoccupied rooms; lowering thermostats to 68 degrees; reducing speed limits, as well as curbing unnecessary driving. However the Department of Facilities-Engineering (DFAE) decided to go the extra mile. Since DFAE personnel control base heating facilities they instituted energy-saving techniques that were quickly implemented. One solution they developed was to employ used crankcase oil from internal combustion engines in anything from helicopters to Jeeps to the general’s staff car. It was found that...
Learn MoreArab Ace in the Recent 20-Day War
According to Washington, the Israeli Air Force incurred the loss of 105 aircraft plus two helicopters during the recent Arab-Israeli conflict. Such losses were twice those incurred during the Six-Day War, June 1967. YOUR CAPTION HERE A telling aspect of the Yom Kippur War was that little more than ten percent of Israeli aircraft losses were the result of air combat; as opposed to the ninety percent lost due to anti-aircraft fire. The older anti-aircraft missile systems, SA-2 and SA-3 logged few kills. Not so SA-6 and SA-7 missile batteries, and, the ZSU-23-4 mobile multiple 23 mm AA mounts. The...
Learn MoreArab Ace in the Recent 20-Day War
According to Washington, the Israeli Air Force incurred the loss of 105 aircraft plus two helicopters during the recent Arab-Israeli conflict. Such losses were twice those incurred during the Six-Day War, June 1967 A telling aspect of the Yom Kippur War was that little more than ten percent of Israeli aircraft losses were the result of air combat; as opposed to the ninety percent lost due to anti-aircraft fire. The older anti-aircraft missile systems, SA-2 and SA-3 logged few kills. Not so SA-6 and SA-7 missile batteries, and, the ZSU-23-4 mobile multiple 23 mm AA mounts. The most potent, though,...
Learn More1991 Briefings
December, 1991: The Society of U.S. Army Flight Surgeons maintains a memorial to flight surgeons who died in service of their country. However accumulating data from the Vietnam era has proved problematic. Those with information on Army flight surgeons who were seriously injured and died in service of the country are encouraged to contact: U.S. Army Aeromedical Center, ATTN: H5XY-AER (Flight Surgeon Memorial), Fort Rucker, Alabama, 36362-5332.
Learn MoreFortunate One in Vietnam
October 1966: PFC Richard K. Duhamel, 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry, finished digging in for the night. He bed down, covered by his poncho. Suddenly a resupply helicopter swooped over, propeller wash sheering off the poncho. Duhamel recovered and settled in. More helicopters, more propeller gusts. Duhamel gathered his belongings, moved 15 yards, and claimed new territory. As he settled in, a grenade popped in the position he so recently occupied. “Glad I moved,” muttered Duhamel. “It would’ve made a sizable hole in my poncho.”
Learn MorePhotographing a Bear
October 1991: Major Joseph A. Durso, Aviation Brigade S-3 for the 2nd Aviation Brigade, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, is pictured last July with the Bear himself, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. The brigade had been assigned to fly General Schwarzkopf during his farewell tour.
Learn MoreBest Hope for the Future
May-June 1947: Major General James M. Gavin wrote an article, “Airborne Armies of the Future,” which appeared in the May-June 1947 edition of The Field Artillery Journal. And on these pages he offered . . . . . . “The future of our armed forces is in the air. All the fighting men and everything they need to fight with in the future and live on as they fight must be capable of movement by air.”He concluded with. . . . . . “The nation that in the future has the best trained and equipped airborne forces has the best...
Learn MoreSioux Scout
September 1963: The Sioux Scout was a short-lived rotary wing aircraft which appeared in the early 1960s. It was a two-place experimental armed helicopter offered by the Bell Helicopter Company in Fort Worth, Texas. A few particulars below: The Sioux Scout Personnel: Pilot and gunner.Power plant: A single Lycoming TVO-435 turbo supercharged engine, rated 260 hp.Rotor system: A single two-bladed main rotor of 37 feet in diameter. A two-bladed metal tail rotor of five feet 10 inches in diameter. The Scout flew publically for the first time in September 1963. As a configuration based on the OH-13, the Scout was an...
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