Presidential helicopter in trouble...

[lucklucky]

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43260/future-marine-one-helicopter-is-struggling-to-meet-requirements-for-emergency-missions

Missing EH101 Merlin already?

[Stuart Galbraith]

Why dont they just use a bloody chinook. Its built like a brick shithouse, its powerful enough to carry any Presidential ego, and if it blows a few journalists away, its a feature not a bug.

[Burncycle360]

MH-53, it's called style people 🤪

[Ivanhoe]

Leaks hydraulic fluid like a sieve, which ironically appears to be a complaint about the 92 ("leaking fluids" may be blue water from the throne, but being a Sikorsky product...).

 

[Dawes]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Why dont they just use a bloody chinook. Its built like a brick shithouse, its powerful enough to carry any Presidential ego, and if it blows a few journalists away, its a feature not a bug.

USAF tried that with their initial Combat Rescue Helicopter award. They were told "I don't think so. Try again"

[R011]

2 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Why dont they just use a bloody chinook. Its built like a brick shithouse, its powerful enough to carry any Presidential ego, and if it blows a few journalists away, its a feature not a bug.

It sounds as if the aircraft flies OK, it's the communications suite that isn't working.  They'd have a similar problem with any helo.  That and it seems it ruins the lawn or some such crap.

[DB]

Their problem is and always has been trying to fit a quart into a pint pot. If they're having problems with equipment installation, it's because of this.

[RETAC21]

Go for the VCV-22, why settle for less?

[shep854]

So the problems are with the talky bits inside, not the helo itself.  

[R011]

5 hours ago, DB said:

Their problem is and always has been trying to fit a quart into a pint pot. If they're having problems with equipment installation, it's because of this.

Perhaps an Imperial quart into a liter pot.  On the other hand, this stuff or something good enough, must have fit in a Sea King which is a touch smaller than an S-92.

[Ssnake]

They don't want yesterday's equipment package into a 1970s helicopter air frame, but tomorrow's equipment in a helicopter of today. The problem is the lack of discipline in formulating the requirements.

[R011]

perhaps asking for tomorrows electronics today that cost a lot and don't seem to work  isn't as good as yesterday's electronics that didn't promise as much, but work.  They seem to have had the same problem with the new Air Force One even though it's another 747 like the last one.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Worth remembering, the Soviets reportedly were using small vacuum tubes in their electronic equipment as late as the 1980's, not because they were backward, but because they were judged superior at withstanding EMP. Im not saying the equipment on the SH-3's is on that level, but its been proven that older equipment does have advantages. The computers in the minuteman silo's are judged to be unhackable, simply because they date from before the internet.

And of course, all those tubes keep you warm in the winter....

[Ssnake]

You can protect electronics against transient surges as would be the result from an EMP. Even our old Leopard 2s had such, way back in the 1980s. If at all, I presume the protection has become better in the last 40 years.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Well, possibly not. The cost of EMP hardening is fairly high. I seem to recall they were envisaging at least some of the B21 series as not being hardened at all for that reason. Sometimes capabilities lapse if people arent willing to pay for them. The middair refueling on the new Air Force one (once a prime survival of Government feature) being a prime example of that.

Yes, I would imagine that the Presidents Helicopter would be the one area they ringfenced. But you dont know what kind of strange decisions they might have made under previous administrations.

[Dawes]

Seems they've had problems getting it right since the VH-3's. Simpler times, I guess.

[DB]

The project history of the VH-71 shows that the government couldn't stop changing the requirements, piling more and more stuff into the specification until the bird couldn't fly any more.

The VH-71 was significantly larger than the VH-92, so it's obviously a huge surprise that that shit doesn't fit.

Just another Thanksgiving story, I guess.

[Simon Tan]

The Russian and Chinese are to blame. 

[NickM]

On 11/26/2021 at 10:55 AM, Burncycle360 said:

MH-53, it's called style people 🤪

Didn't the last season of 'Homeland' feature the chopper the POTUS and the Afghan PM crashing due to technical issues? Yeah, the maintenance crew for 'normal' Blackhawks' were a bunch of incompetent, uncaring "f/k-nuts", so naturally they were turned loose on the Prez's 'ride'. 

That was just ONE of the reasons the final season was totally cringe worthy.

[bd1]

18 hours ago, Simon Tan said:

The Russian and Chinese are to blame. 

´´Igor Sikorsky , Rodina has a mission for you. your work eventually will bankrupt the USA. da.´´

[Simon Tan]

Nono, Agent 69, Donald Ivan Trump set it up to trap Great Biden. 

[Colin]

On 11/29/2021 at 11:20 AM, bd1 said:

´´Igor Sikorsky , Rodina has a mission for you. your work eventually will bankrupt the USA. da.´´

LOL

[lucklucky]

 

 

[Simon Tan]

WINNING!

[R011]

On 11/26/2021 at 3:51 PM, R011 said:

It sounds as if the aircraft flies OK, it's the communications suite that isn't working.  They'd have a similar problem with any helo.  That and it seems it ruins the lawn or some such crap.

Of course I may have spoken too soon about the aircraft itself working.  The RCAF just grounded their S-92s because of tail cracks.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/cyclone-helicopter-cracks-concerns-expert-1.6274439

Shoulda bought Merlins.