US Army's future helicopters?

[Slater]

I guess you could call me skeptical, given that the Army can't even seem to buy a scout helo to replace the old OH-58 Kiowas:

http://aviationweek.com/awin-only/bell-sikorskyboeing-build-army-jmr-rotorcraft-demonstrators

[Moose-Knuckle]

Damn it man, it's 2014 for crying out loud . . . where is Airwolf or even Blue Thunder for that matter?!

[Voodoochild]

Damn it man, it's 2014 for crying out loud . . . where is Airwolf or even Blue Thunder for that matter?!

I know right I want some sort of invisibility cloak for crying out loud. But something tells me this will probably turn into a money pit. Like the F-35 is right now.

[Moose-Knuckle]

I know right I want some sort of invisibility cloak for crying out loud.

Well DARPA is working on several, some vids up on the YouTube.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

I know right I want some sort of invisibility cloak for crying out loud. But something tells me this will probably turn into a money pit. Like the F-35 is right now.


Well DARPA is working on several, some vids up on the YouTube.

I had one, but I forgot where set it down......

[Moose-Knuckle]

I had one, but I forgot where set it down......

Reminds me of the hunters who sit down their camouflaged rifle/shotgun/pack against a tree in the woods and can never find it again.

[Slater]

The Boeing/Sikorsky team's last major effort was a train wreck called the RAH-66 Comanche.

[rjacobs]

Im wondering if or how these designs get rid of the inherent issue with helicopters and their limited top speed known as retreating blade stall?

Unless at a certain speed with the pusher propeller they are using the blade's more as a wing like an airplane vs. a traditional rotor blade providing lift. Maybe these thing turn into more of a gyro copter, although I think they suffer the same retreating blade stall issues, but I am not a rotor head and dont understand those things very well. Its hard to drink coffee or get up to take a leak when you have to use both hands and feet to fly at all times.

If you dont have to have a pivoting rotor head to allow forward momentum and instead are using the pusher propeller maybe something changes.

If they get this issue of retreating blade stall solved, it would open up a whole new world to helicopters of all types as I believe that is what keeps helo design where it is today, not that much changed from how its been done for years.

[rjacobs]

The Boeing/Sikorsky team's last major effort was a train wreck called the RAH-66 Comanche.

I dont know all the in's and out's of that program(except, like you said, train wreck), but I have a feeling it is not unlike every major project in the past 20 years: mission creep. More and more shit added on adding to the development cycle leads to cost over runs and a product that doesnt really do anything all that well because its being called upon to do everything. I also think it suffered from the same issues the F22 and F35 program suffer: it cant carry shit when everything has to be tucked into bays to keep the radar cross section low. Hard to carry 16 TOW missiles when you can only tuck 4 into the bays(or whatever it could carry internally). This is also what ended up killing the F117. Fantastic airplane, way ahead of its time, but when you can carry 2 bombs, its a ton of cost for not carrying much payload. When the B2 came around and it could carry 80 500lb JDAM's compared to 2, the F117 days were numbered.

[Slater]

The Army spent almost 7 billion dollars on the Comanche program, with no operational helicopters to show for it. Some requirements today could be seen as adding expense. For example, the Army required the Comanche to be able to self-deploy across the Atlantic.

[El Cid]

Looks pretty slick! We'll see if it actually gets funded/fielded. I'm happy to see them departing from traditional helicopter configurations.

http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20141008/NEWS04/310080043/

[J-Dub]

Waste of money. But the military industrial complex is going to fund itself....

[MistWolf]

Im wondering if or how these designs get rid of the inherent issue with helicopters and their limited top speed known as retreating blade stall?

The Sikorsky eliminates the problem from retreating blade stall by using two counter rotating main rotors. With a single MR, blade stall is a problem because the helicopter loses lift on the retreating blade side. By using two counter rotating MRs, the helicopter has an attacking blade on each side to counteract the effects of the retreating blades to maintain symmetry of lift. Blade stall isn't eliminated, it's counteracted and top airspeed can be increased safely