Tuesday, October 5, 2010

U.S. Military Developing New Concept Helicopter

Joint Multi Role
Photo courtesy Sikorsky
Aviation Week has a great post about a new Sikorsky design that the U.S. military is hoping to use to replace their current fleet of helicopters. There are plans in the works for scaled up models to replace the Chinook and smaller models to replace the Kiowa.
From the article:
The US Army is kicking off a program to demonstrate technology for a family of rotorcraft that could eventually replace its entire fleet of helicopters - attack, reconnaissance, utility and cargo - as well as Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force helos.
Officials from the Army's Aviation and Missile Research and Development Engineering Center are briefing industry on the "approved and funded" plans here at the International Powered Lift Conference in Philadelphia.
Joint Multi Role -- a JSF With Rotors
Posted by Graham Warwick at 10/5/2010
Read more here.

7 comments:

  1. Interesting design. I wonder how much better these are than the previous ones, as well as what causes this odd looking design to be better.

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  2. First the Osprey, then this. How many Marines had to die to get the Osprey ready? How many more servicemen will have to die in training to fix something that doesn't need to be fixed?

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  3. Aperture Science, they do what they must, because they can
    For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead

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  4. @Wildboar the Marines that died in Osprey accidents weren't part of flight testing and getting the aircraft ready, it was training missions to teach them to fly it. Any new technology has an inherent risk to it...especially something as complex as a helicopter. Doesn't mean we shouldn't continually develop safer, more efficient, more effective vehicles.

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  5. Not bad, are you selling it? lol.

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  6. I think the Osprey's design was a failure from day one. The Military was so concerned about high troop payloads and quick deployment. Over shadowed the flaws of the unnatural aircraft, twisting the engines is just crazy for such a small aircraft. The Osprey should have had four engines not two, one on each corner, with one engine failure the other three could have taken the load.

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