I just finished watching a documentary program on how these helicopters are built. Absolutely fascinating!
I’ve always understood them to be the state of the art attack helicopters, but to see how these things are assembled ( all by hand right here in Mesa Arizona) was really eye opening.
It’s all way to much to go into, but just a few of the things I found so interesting were.
1. The amount of armor: They go to extreme lengths to be able to survive taking hits. The whole underside is heavily armored, the glass is bullet proof and up to two inches thick. The pilots, once they are secured into their seats, can pull additional shielding forward from the sides of their seats to protect them from bullets. The underside is so heavily armored that if the helicopter is being fired upon, pilots will turn the aircraft so that the bottom of the aircraft is facing the incoming fire. The thick rubber and bullet proof fuel tank resides in the center of the fuselage and the compartment that holds it is triple layered with different kinds of bullet proofing and impact absorbing materials. The rotor blades have titanium leading edges to survive impacting tree branches during low level flying.
2. Redundancy: Two jet engines provide not only speed, but makes it possible to keep flying if the aircraft loses one engine. The two man crew each have a set of controls to fly the unit and the cockpit is separated by bulletproof glass into two separate cockpits, so if one cockpit / pilot gets hit the other half of the cockpit can survive and fly the craft home. There is also an onboard fire suppression system. Engines are designed to be fast swapped, only held in by three bolts! A crew can change one out in only an hour!
The Electronics: Are of course stunning. That radar dome on top of the rotors and the targeting system can identify 64 target threats on land and in the air, simultaneously and automatically lock missile guidance on something like the top 16 perceived threats. The module that attaches to the nose is the single most expensive component on the aircraft, containing laser targeting, telescopic cameras and infrared sensors.
The nose mounted machine gun is guided by the pilots helmet. It shoots where he looks. There is eleven miles of wiring in every helicopter! They have a warehouse sized building with rows and rows of aisles that look to be 100 yards long , where they meticulously lay out and assemble the aircrafts wiring harnesses!
Just an amazing amazing aircraft! By the way, when an older model comes back to the factory for refurbishing, it is completely stripped down to the airframe ,inspected and built back up as new with all the upgraded systems.
I love this kind of stuff, I’m such a nerd.
I’ve always understood them to be the state of the art attack helicopters, but to see how these things are assembled ( all by hand right here in Mesa Arizona) was really eye opening.
It’s all way to much to go into, but just a few of the things I found so interesting were.
1. The amount of armor: They go to extreme lengths to be able to survive taking hits. The whole underside is heavily armored, the glass is bullet proof and up to two inches thick. The pilots, once they are secured into their seats, can pull additional shielding forward from the sides of their seats to protect them from bullets. The underside is so heavily armored that if the helicopter is being fired upon, pilots will turn the aircraft so that the bottom of the aircraft is facing the incoming fire. The thick rubber and bullet proof fuel tank resides in the center of the fuselage and the compartment that holds it is triple layered with different kinds of bullet proofing and impact absorbing materials. The rotor blades have titanium leading edges to survive impacting tree branches during low level flying.
2. Redundancy: Two jet engines provide not only speed, but makes it possible to keep flying if the aircraft loses one engine. The two man crew each have a set of controls to fly the unit and the cockpit is separated by bulletproof glass into two separate cockpits, so if one cockpit / pilot gets hit the other half of the cockpit can survive and fly the craft home. There is also an onboard fire suppression system. Engines are designed to be fast swapped, only held in by three bolts! A crew can change one out in only an hour!
The Electronics: Are of course stunning. That radar dome on top of the rotors and the targeting system can identify 64 target threats on land and in the air, simultaneously and automatically lock missile guidance on something like the top 16 perceived threats. The module that attaches to the nose is the single most expensive component on the aircraft, containing laser targeting, telescopic cameras and infrared sensors.
The nose mounted machine gun is guided by the pilots helmet. It shoots where he looks. There is eleven miles of wiring in every helicopter! They have a warehouse sized building with rows and rows of aisles that look to be 100 yards long , where they meticulously lay out and assemble the aircrafts wiring harnesses!
Just an amazing amazing aircraft! By the way, when an older model comes back to the factory for refurbishing, it is completely stripped down to the airframe ,inspected and built back up as new with all the upgraded systems.
I love this kind of stuff, I’m such a nerd.
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