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| Another great pic by Joe Copalman |
What if the USMC did a complete redesign/upgrade of the CH-46 instead of buying the MV-22? They would all be new build helicopters but would start off with all the strong points of the Sea Knight.
What would we want?
*Composite blades...maybe something from the Brits and their Lynx helicopter (the fast one that broke records)
*A composite body...using processes developed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin
*Massive engines...perhaps the same ones used on the CH-53K or the MV-22.
*Enlarged sponsons to hold more fuel
*Enlarged cabin both in depth and width
*Quad landing gear for increased stability on ships.
Maybe I'm talking about a scaled up CH-46 or a scaled down CH-47 but if we only got these few upgrades what would we have now? We'd have a helicopter that would probably be fully deployed and produced, lower life cycle costs, less expensive, more robust, faster than the legacy helicopter (but not as fast as the MV-22), longer ranged than the legacy helicopter (ditto) and it wouldn't be eating up the budget leaving the ground side with crumbs.
Something that could fit a 20' ISO in the back.
ReplyDeletei was heading there but i thought that's was the specs laid out for the CH-53K...it was either that or pallets i don't remember which.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest request?? Survivability. The Chinooks are death traps.
ReplyDeleteA straight up CH-46 replacement is already flying off ships: it's the CH-148. No development needed, just up the production rate to lower the unit cost.
ReplyDeleteWant something bigger? Something with two CH-53K engines, like you propose, has basically the same power as a CH-53E. There is no way that any benefits of a whole new development project are going to compare to the cost savings of just buying more CH-53Es.
wow...good point...
ReplyDeleteSol, or you could just speak nicely to boeing a get them to make you some of these...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Model_360
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad the USMC didn't play it safe and go with the Model 360 instead of the Osprey. Just MHO.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather see what Sikorski could do with their X2 technologies in a larger transport platform.
ReplyDeleteIf the Russians can develop the Mi-38, I bet Sikorsky could take it further.