Heavy Metal (of the rotary kind)

[CumminsPilot]

"Composite airframe?" How does that work for repair? Can you patch composite ribs and frames?

Yes, easily. The repair is almost identical to doing it on an aluminum airplane, just takes a couple tricks-of-the-trade to do it well. Oh, and usually no rivets...

 

[jt71582]

They showed us that video in one of our classes in HT-land. That thing looks pretty freaking cool. And the transmission weighs as much as my entire TH-57C.

 

[Pags]

Gotta love the bit that shows the 53K externaling a Chinook. Nice little snark by the Sikorsky PR team.

 

[bert]

Gotta love the bit that shows the 53K externaling a Chinook. Nice little snark by the Sikorsky PR team.

Especially for an airplane that only exists on paper.

 

[KBayDog]

Especially for an airplane that only exists on paper.

+1(00).

 

[squeeze]

Especially for an airplane that only exists on paper.

The -53E can external a CH-47 just fine... and has on multiple occasions in theater. Why wouldn't an improved variant?

 

[bert]

The -53E can external a CH-47 just fine... and has on multiple occasions in theater. Why wouldn't an improved variant?

I'm making fun of promotional videos for an aircraft still deep in development. I'd like to see them meet cost or schedule or performance (let alone all 3) before the high-fiving starts.

(And when you consider that all the mechanicals and avionics are new, it is hard to think of it as just a new variant. This is another case of us trying to make the technical risk of a new aircraft seem lower by implying we are just upgrading an already mature design).

 

[AirPirate]

In the news, http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcascherrypoint/Pages/20110518ChinookLift.aspx

 

[illinijoe05]

Did anyone else notice the side stick cyclic?

 

[MasterBates]

Not sold on the side stick.

 

[teabag53]

A lot of people weren't sold on it at first but the DT folks seemed to like it in the sim. The only side stick experience I've had is about a 2.0 in the front of a Cobra and I thought it was pretty money...

 

[BACONATOR]

A lot of people weren't sold on it at first but the DT folks seemed to like it in the sim. The only side stick experience I've had is about a 2.0 in the front of a Cobra and I thought it was pretty money...

Having actually done it I'll take your word for it. My initial reaction was like MB's. I can't imagine flying w/ sidestick. I mean if body armor and a small (inch or so) shift in your body, is enough to eff with your muscle memory to make you have to consciously adjust, I can't imagine flying with the stick a foot away from where it is normally, not to mention not rotating about a pivot in the floor, but a pivot inches below.

I'm sure getting hands on in a sim would change a lot of minds, but thinking about it, it seems like a learning curve.

 

[phrogpilot73]

I'm sure getting hands on in a sim would change a lot of minds, but thinking about it, it seems like a learning curve.

It doesn't seem to bother the Cobra guys that go from TH-57 to AH-1 back to TH-57...

 

[helolumpy]

So, if the 60S mine sweep equipment doesn't pan out, is this what the Navy's going to get to replace our 53E's that about to turn into pumpkins?

 

[MasterBates]

No. We'll buy MH-53K's with small stubwings and drop tanks, although it will be otherwise identical.