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Its good for quick extraction or insertion and dropping supplies ..
Is this Back Door new development for Dhruv ? I had never seen this type of picture earlier.
Is this Back Door new development for Dhruv ? I had never seen this type of picture earlier.
Where's the Helicopter with the highest service ceiling? ;cont....
Bell 206 JetRanger: The Civilian Chopper
First flight: December 8, 1962
The Bell JetRanger is instantly recognizable to almost anyone raised in the West, a presence in the skies, on television, in films, and in newspapers for five decades. Whether chasing 55 mph-disdaining speeders in the 1970s, providing live local TV news pictures, transporting emergency medical patients, or shuttling celebrities to events, the Bell 206 family has defined the light corporate helicopter.
Ironically it was born as a military aircraft in the 1960s in response to a requirement for a light observation helicopter. Bell's D-250 twin blade, single turbine prototype (YOH-4A) lost out to the Hughes OH-6 but the company chose to market it as a civilian aircraft, self-funding development of the redesigned, larger 206A which first flew in 1966. By 1973 over 1,000 had been sold on the civil market and the Army had chosen it as a new observation helicopter (OH-58A) while the Navy selected it as a training helicopter (TH-57A).
Subsequent LongRanger variants increased performance and capacity and over 7,300 have been built. In 1982 a 206L completed the first around-the-world helicopter flight in 29 days.
Radosław Drożdżewski
Bell AH-1 Cobra: The First Dedicated Attack Helicopter
First flight: September 7, 1965
Attack helicopters are a staple of advanced armies, but it wasn't until the Vietnam conflict that a truly purpose-built attack helicopter – the AH-1 Cobra—was fielded.
The Army's creation of Air Cavalry Brigades in the early 60s included a requirement for a dedicated attack helicopter. An Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFS) program posited a sophisticated, heavily armored machine. Bell had shown the Army a light attack design (D-255 Iroquois Warrior) based on the Huey in 1962. Though not selected for AAFS, Bell continued work on the concept.
By 1965 the Army sought an interim gunship for Vietnam duty and Bell responded with its Model 209, dubbed "Cobra". The Cobra featured a narrow forward fuselage with stub-wings and a fighter jet-like stepped-up tandem seating for the gunner (in front) and pilot (behind), a configuration seen in nearly all attack helicopters today. It borrowed components from the UH-1 Huey including its main rotor, turboshaft engine, transmission, tail boom, empennage, and tail rotor.
Designated AH-1, the Cobra debuted during the 1968 Tet offensive. In addition to escorting transport helicopters and forming "hunter/killer" teams with scout helicopters, it performed a rescue, picking up a downed F-100 Super Sabre pilot who clung to its gun panel door until over friendly territory. The AH-1 inspired attack helicopter designs worldwide and remains in service with the U.S. Marine Corps as the AH-1Z Viper.
Getty sierrarat
Westland Lynx: The First Fully Aerobatic Helicopter
First flight: March 21, 1971
While the Huey dominated the medium utility/attack market in the late 1960s-early 1970s, Europe looked to develop its own competitors. British manufacturer, Westland, came up with its WG.13 in the late 60s, intended as a replacement for its previous designs, and to challenge the Huey.
Initially folded into a joint Anglo-French development program, the WG.13 soon devolved to a purely British effort as a naval attack platform. Following its first flight in March1971, the Lynx showed the benefits of its special main rotor design which allowed it to perform loops, rolls, and handle much like a fixed-wing aircraft. It was also fast, setting a speed record in 1972 at 199.9 mph.
The Lynx debuted in British Army/Navy service in the late 1970s in transport, armed escort, anti-tank, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and other roles and flew during the Falklands War and in Iraq. In 1986, a modified Lynx set a new speed record at 249 mph. The basic Lynx design has evolved into the Augusta Westland AW159 military helicopter.
Heb
Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk: The Modern Huey
First flight: October 17, 1974
The Army was already looking to replace the UH-1 Iroquois/Huey in the late 1960s launching the Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS) program around a common turbine engine (GE's T700). Sikorsky came up with the S-70, a twin engine design it put forward as the YUH-60A for UTTAS. The first prototype flew in October 1974, besting Boeing's YUH-61A in a flyoff competition.
It would become the UH-60 Black Hawk – named after a Native American warrior. It entered service in 1979 as the Army's new assault/utility helicopter. During its development, the Navy was evaluating replacements for its SH-2 Sea Sprite search and rescue/maritime warfare helicopter. Favoring common acquisition with the Army, the Navy chose Sikorsky's UH-60-based design as the SH-60B Seahawk in 1978. These choices spawned a family of H-60 models including the Coast Guard Jayhawk, special operations Pave Hawk and VH-60N presidential support helicopter.
More than 4,000 H-60s have been produced and are operating with the armed forces of Japan, Turkey, Israel, and Columbia among others, but the UH-60 gained worldwide fame from the 2001 film Black Hawk Down.
Terry Moore
Robinson R-22: The Best-Selling, Low-Cost Helicopter
First flight: 1975
Frank Robinson was inspired to embark on a rotary-wing career upon seeing a newspaper photo of Igor Sikorsky hovering in his VS300 prototype. After stints as an engineer at Cessna, Kaman and Hughes, he struck out on his own in 1973, determined to build and market a small, low-cost helicopter.
California-based Robinson Helicopter Company perfected the low-inertia rotor system design of the R-22 in the 1970s, receiving FAA certification in 1979. The lightweight, two-seat, piston-powered R-22 proved perfect as a primary rotary-wing flight trainer, surveying and cattle management tool. Its 150 hp Lycoming O-320 air-cooled four cylinder runs well on inexpensive 100LL aviation gas and the ability to literally tow the helicopter on a trailer behind a pickup truck made it immensely popular, inspiring a family of variants including the R-44 and R-66.
Nearly 5,000 R-22s had been produced by 2015, and in 2016 a new one cost approximately $290,000, a fraction of the price of other civilian helicopters.
ullstein bild
Mil Mi-26: The Largest Series Production Helicopter
First flight: December 14, 1977
Reflecting Russia's taste for gigantic things, the Rostvertol Mil Mi-26 is the world's biggest production helicopter. Designed in the 1970s as a heavy-lift transport for military equipment from amphibious-armored personnel carriers to mobile ballistic missiles, the Mi-26 also serves civilian operators in roles from aerial firefighting to lifting outsize freight including a 25-ton block of frozen soil encasing a preserved, 23,000-year-old Woolly Mammoth.
The Mi-26's eight-blade main rotor is a 105 feet in diameter and converts 22,800 shaft-horsepower from two Lotarev D-136 turbines to thrust. Its tail rotor is about the size of the main rotor of an MD500 light helicopter. The Mil has the load capability of a C-130 with an internal payload of 44,000 lbs (20 tons). It retains the world record for the greatest mass lifted to 2,000 meters (6,562 ft) with125,153.8 lbs in 1982. In 2002, Uncle Sam leased an Mi-26 from a Canadian firm to lift a U.S. Army MH-47E Chinook helicopter (huge in its own right) from a mountain in Afghanistan.
Dmitry Terekhov
Northrop-Grumman MQ-8: The First Operational Autonomous Helicopter
First flight: 2002
The idea of ship-launched aircraft as scouts for Navy vessels dates to before WWI. Not until the Northrop-Grumman MQ-8B deployed aboard the US Navy frigate, McInerney (FFG-8) in 2010 was an autonomous, unmanned rotary-wing scout aircraft operational.
The RQ-8/MQ-8 arose from the Navy's need to replace aging RQ-2 Pioneer fixed-wing UAV systems. With unmanned systems performing everything from reconnaissance to strike by the late 1990s, the Navy wanted these capabilities in a relatively large unmanned vertical launch/recovery aircraft.
In 2000, Northrop Grumman's Schweizer Model 330-based design was selected. Developed as the reconnaissance-focused RQ-8A, it met the Navy's range, endurance, and payload goals (125 NM/3 hours/200 lbs) but interest waned until the Army saw merit in the design which evolved into the more capable MQ-8B in 2003. A decade later, the Navy had taken lead again and the Fire Scout/Sea Scout was operating in Afghanistan, in Africa, from Frigates, Littoral Combat Ships, and Coast Guard cutters.
In September 2012 a Fire Scout set a single-day record, providing ISR coverage for a 24-hour period over the course of 10 flights.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Alan Gragg/U.S. Navy
Eurocopter X3: The World's Fastest Helicopter
First flight: September 6, 2010
The Eurocopter (Airbus Helicopters) X3 is a hybrid helicopter which combines a traditional main rotor powered by two Turbomeca RTM322 turboshafts with a pair of stub wing-mounted propellers to provide additional forward thrust. Each stub wing prop has a different pitch to counteract the torque of the main rotor thereby providing additional directional stability.
With this configuration and with a highly drag-efficient fairing over the shaft and gearbox below the main rotor, the X3 sprinted to 255 knots (293 mph) at 10,000 feet in 2013. That's the fastest speed ever recorded by what could be called a helicopter. Since the X3 is based on the popular Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin, it fits the definition and its importance lies in signifying what the helicopter may become.
The X3 was a candidate for the U.S. Army's Armed Aerial Scout requirement but it wasn't selected. Eurocopter/Airbus see future applications for the X3's technology in the offshore oil market and high speed inter-city shuttle services to landing venues not usable by fixed-wing turboprops.
Paul J. Richards
The article itself was not interesting. But the lead in picture was that of Dhruv ... so feel good factor ;-)Where's the Helicopter with the highest service ceiling? ;
Ignore such articles. They are made by the west, for the west.
Another pic for HAL Dhruv 's rear entrance access
Its good for quick extraction or insertion and dropping supplies ..
It means HAL has confirmed orders for Dhruv till 2022 now with minimum production rate of 35/yr.After the signing of the contract, the forces are scheduled to get their first machine in the year 2020 and the last helicopter is scheduled to be provided to them by 2022
ALH production won't cease before 2027 IMHO, there is still plenty of demand within India let alone abroad.It means HAL has confirmed orders for Dhruv till 2022 now with minimum production rate of 35/yr.
Are you sure that pic is from 2017?Dhruv ASW in 2008
Dhruv ASW in 2017
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