http://www.flyhelicopter.net en-us Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:14:22 -0500 http://www.flyhelicopter.net/bell-407/ The Bell Model 407 is a civil utility helicopter, an offshoot of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger. The 407 uses a 4-bladed rotor system with a rigid, composite rotor hub in place of the Model 206's 2-bladed conventional rotor. The Bell 407 is often used for corporate and offshore transport, as an air ambulance, law enforcement, electronic news gathering and movie making.

Development history. In 1993, Bell's began to development the New Light Aircraft as a substitute for its Model 206 series. The program lead to the 407, an evolutionary development of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger. A 206L-3 LongRanger was converted as the concept demonstrator 407 and first flew in this form on April 21, 1994, while the 407 was first publicly announced at the Las Vegas Heli-Expo in January 1995. The first pre-production 407 flew in June 1995, and the first production 407 flew in November 1995. Customer deliveries began the following February. The Bell 407 features the four blade main rotor developed for the OH-58 (Model 406). The blades and hub use composite construction, have no life limits, and provide improved performance and better ride comfort. The 407's cabin is also 8 in (18 cm) wider cabin, increasing internal cabin width and space, and features 35% larger main cabin windows. The more powerful Rolls-Royce (Allison) 250-C47 turboshaft allows an increase in max takeoff weight and improves performance at hotter temperatures and/or higher altitudes. In 1995, Bell studied fitting the 407 with a shrouded tail rotor, but did not proceed. For a time, Bell studied developing the Model 407T twin, but instead chose to develop the essentially all new twin PW206D powered Bell 427.

The ARH-70 armed reconnaissance helicopter, is being improved and developed for the U.S. Army is based the 407. The Bell 417 was a growth variant of the Bell 407, in essence a civil version of the ARH-70 armed reconnaissance helicopter for the US Army. The 417 made its first flight on June 8, 2006. The 417 was to be powered by a Honeywell HTS900 turboshaft engine, producing 970 shp (720 kW) and includes full FADEC controls. The cabin will seat 5 passengers in club-seating configuration, in addition to the crew of two. The civilian 417 was canceled at Heli-Expo 2007 in Orlando, but the ARH-70 will continue production.

Polar First was an around-the-world, pole-to-pole record flight flown by Colin Bodill and Jennifer Murray utilizing a standard Bell 407. The flight started from Bell's facility at the Fort Worth Alliance Airport on December 5, 2006 and was finished upon the return of the helicopter to the same facility on May 23, 2007. The team flew about 36,000 miles (57,900 km) over 189 days and 300 flight hours, through 34 different countries. The flight run in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society to provide educational outreach to 28 international schools, which were visited during the trip. The project also performed as a fundraiser for the SOS Children's Villages.

Characteristics:
Crew: 1 pilot
Capacity: Typical seating configuration for seven comprising pilot and passengers, with five passengers in main cabin. Max hook capacity 1200 kg (2645 lb).
Length: 41 ft 8 in (12.7 m)
Rotor diameter: 35 ft 0 in (10.67 m)
Height: 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)
Disc area: 962 ft² (89 m²)
Empty weight: 2668 lb (1210 kg)
Useful load: 2347 lb (internal) (1065 kg (internal))
Max takeoff weight: 6,000 lb (2,722 kg)
Maximum speed: 140 knots (260 km/h)
Cruise speed: 133 knots (246 km/h) Range: 330 mi (612 km)
Service ceiling 18,690 ft (5,698 m)
Powerplant: 1× Allison 250-C47 turboshaft, 700 shp (520 kW)
Propellers: 4 blade rotor
]]> Wed, 21 May 2008 04:03:16 -0400 http://www.flyhelicopter.net/bell-407/ http://www.flyhelicopter.net/kamov-ka-50/ The Kamov Ka-50 Black Shark is a single-seat Russian attack helicopter for destroying armored vehicles, slow-speed air targets and manpower on the battlefield. Distinctive coaxial Ka-50 helicopter has two three-blade rotors of 14.5-m diameter each. The airframe features perfect aerodynamic outlines, mid-set stub wing, retractable three-leg landing gear and empennage of a fixed-wing aircraft type. The pilot cockpit is fully armored. The emergency pilot escape system, comprising an ejection seat, saves the pilot within the entire flight speed and altitude range. A set of improved survivability means allows Ka-50 to attack successfully the specified targets and to survive under intensive fire counteraction. It was designed in the 1980s and adopted for service in the Russian army in 1995. It is currently manufactured by the Progress company of Arseniev. During the late-1990s, Kamov and Israeli Air Industries developed a tandem-seat cockpit version, the Kamov Ka-50-2 Erdogan (Turkish for "Born Warrior"), to compete in Turkey's attack helicopter competition.

The Ka-50 was designed to be small, fast, and agile to improve survivability and lethality. For minimal weight and size it was - uniquely among gunships - to be operated by a single pilot only. Kamov concluded after thorough research of helicopter combat in Afghanistan and other war zones that the typical attack mission phases of low-level approach, pop-up target acquisition, and weapon launch don't simultaneously demand navigation, maneuvering, and weapons operation of the pilot; and thus with well-designed support automation a single pilot can indeed carry out the entire mission alone. However, it is still an unanswered question whether in practice the rank and file of Black Shark pilots would nevertheless suffer from excess fatigue from this combined workload.

Like other Kamov's helicopters, it features Kamov's characteristic contra-rotating co-axial rotor system, which removes the need for the entire tail-rotor assembly and improves the aircraft's aerobatic qualities - it can perform loops, rolls, and “the funnel” (circle-strafing) where the aircraft maintains a line-of-sight to target while flying circles of varying altitude, elevation, and airspeed around it. Using two rotors means that a smaller rotor with slower moving rotor tips can be used compared to a single rotor design. Since the speed of the advancing rotor tip is a primary limitation to the maximum speed of a helicopter, this allows a faster maximum speed than helicopters such as the AH-64. The elimination of the tail rotor is a qualitative advantage because the torque-countering tail rotor can waste up to 30% of engine power. Furthermore, the vulnerable boom and rear gearbox are fairly common causes of helicopter losses in combat (as proven in Vietnam); the Black Shark's entire transmission presents a comparatively small target to ground fire. Kamov maintains that the co-axial drive assembly is built to survive hits from 23mm ammunition like the other vital parts of the helicopter. The zero native torque also allows the aircraft to be fairly immune to wind strength and direction, and to have an unsurpassed turn rate in all travel speed envelopes.

As the single seat configuration was considered too revolutionary to be discovered by NATO, false windows were painted on the first two prototypes. The "windows" evidently worked as the first western reports of the aircraft were wildly inaccurate. According to the Air Force Magazine Soviet Aerospace Almanac 1989, the "DoD states that this helicopter has not been observed carrying antitank guided weapons. Instead, it is thought to have a primary air-to-air role (an assessment that is not universally accepted). Like other combat helicopters, 'hokum' has a crew of two, in tandem, with an elevated rear seat."

The Ka-50 was the first helicopter fitted with a NPP Zvezda K-37-800 ejection seat for improved pilot survivability; this was also seen as a psychological factor enhancing the pilot's combat courage. Before the rocket in the ejection seat kicks in, rotor blades are blown away by explosive charges in the rotor disc and the canopy is similarly jettisoned.

The first Ka-50 prototype was nicknamed "Werewolf," however Kamov's official name for the type is "Black Shark." As the Soviet Union's collapse vastly reduced military spending before Ka-50 could go into full-scale production, a relatively small number of these aircraft have been built. Reportedly Ka-50's development took place in record time, as Kamov had the forethought of placing liaison engineers at major component suppliers and systems subcontractors.

The Ka-50 and its modifications have been chosen as the special forces support helicopter while Mi-28 has become main army's gunship. The production of Ka-50 was recommenced in 2006.

The aircraft carries a substantial load of weapons in four external hardpoints under the stub wings plus two on the wingtips, a total of some 2,300 kg depending on the mix. The main armament are the twelve laser-guided Vikhr anti-tank missiles with a maximum range of some 10 km. The laser guidance is reported to be virtually jam-proof and the system features automatic guidance to target enabling evasive movement immediately after missile launch. The fire control system automatically shares all target information among the four Black Sharks of a typical flight in real time, allowing one helicopter to engage a target spotted by another, and the system also can input target information from ground-based forward scouts with man-portable target designation gear. The integrated 30mm Shipunov 2A42 cannon is semi-rigidly fixed on the helicopter's side, movable only slightly in elevation and azimuth. The aircraft's agility allows the weapon control system to turn (the entire helicopter and) the cannon at the target acquired in the pilot's helmet sight about as fast as the cannon turret of the Apache or the Mi-28 turns. The semi-rigid mounting improves the cannon's accuracy, giving the 30mm a longer practical range and better hit ratio at medium ranges than with a free-turning turret mount. ]]> Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:12:34 -0400 http://www.flyhelicopter.net/kamov-ka-50/ http://www.flyhelicopter.net/mosquito-ultralight-helicopter/ Your own helicopter for under US$20,000!

Flying is not a sport generally associated with those people who are light of wallet – which makes the Mosquito Ultralight helicopter something of a rarity. The entire kit for the Mosquito can be purchased for US$20,000 and if you think the minimalist Mosquito leaves you a bit vulnerable, there’s the fully enclosed Mosquito XE and XEL which can be purchased for US$23,000 apeice. Building the kits will cost you about 200 to 300 hours to build or you can have the plane built for you for a flat US$4000. Getting airborn for under US$20,000 in your own, new helicopter is quite a feat – we’re not aware of any other helicopter in this price category and on top of that, both Mosquito variants offer very low maintenance and operating costs.

The Mosquito’s designer John Uptigrove is a mech engineer by trade and like a lot of people alwaysdreamed of being able to fly. “By creating an ultralight helicopter it offers that ability without all the cost and hassle of dealing with air regs,” says Uptigrove. To date, Uptigrove’s Innovator Technologies has sold 37 mosquito kits (two in Japan, two in Canada, one in Spain, one in France, one in Belgium and the remainder in the US) and a dozen have been built to airworthiness by their purchasers at the time of going to press. The open frame Mosquito first became available in 2002 and the XE model was brought on in 2004.

All of the mosquitoes sold so far have been built in kit form, though the company has just begun offering a factory build program and the first factory-finished Mosquito is being finished as you read this. The birds are typically used for “recreational flight for the most part,” says Uptigrove.

“Some plan to use them for flying into their favorite fishing hole. As a work machine they are ideal for ranch herding, flying fence lines or flying out to your farm machinery. I think every farmer and rancher should have one,” he jokes.

The Mosquito is one of the worlds lightest manned Helicopters that has been designed and developed over the past 10 years to deliver performance, relability and easy of flight. Ken Armstrong of Kit Planes Magazine said that the "Mosquito is convincing - it's as close as you can come to real flying with almost no means of support, and the view is at least as good as a bird". He also said that "Flying the refined Mosquito Ultralight was the most fun I've ever had with a Helicopter!". The Ultralight legal Mosquito and Mosquito XEL are only permitted to carry five gallons of fuel and hence have a range of just 60 miles. The XE can carry 12 gallons of fuel and so has a range of 150 miles.

The Mosquito frame is made up of Aircraft Grade 6061-T6 aluminum and utilises a simple triangulated structure with straight tubing throughout to maximize strength, reduce weight and simplify construction. The additional use of a Carbon Fibre tail boom and support struts adds to the Mosquito's structural ridgidity and futher improved its power to weight ratio.

The Mosquito's tripod legs are equiped with small skid pads to help reduce lateral movement during engine run-up to lift off stage. Ground hanling wheels are also available to easy ground transport.

Engine: The Mosquito is powered by Compact Radial Engine's - MZ202, 60-hp, a two cycle, two cylinder engine with the highest power to weight ratio on the market today. This enging empolyes Reed Induction which yields a very flat torque curve ensuring power is delivered costantly over the required operating range. The MZ202 also has a lower operating speed of 6000 rpm when compared to other engines with similar power range that typically operate at 6500 to 7000 rpm resulting in less stress on the engine and improving reliability.

Canadian-based Uptigrove originally charged less for his offspring, but as he explains, “I sell in US dollars as that is the primary market, but I live in Canada and the Canadian dollar keeps going up which is cutting into my profit in a bad way, so I have to keep raising my price to match.” You can actually start building your Mosquito for a lot less as the kit is sold in bite size chunks and the first kit group, the frame kit, sells for only US$2,995.00.

Uptigrove believes safety is paramount in aviation and puts his money where his mouth is. Provide proof that you have had helicopter training from a certified instructor to at least the "solo" signoff, or a minimum of 10 hours dual instruction by the time of your purchase of the last group (Rotor System and Blades) and Innovator will discount the final price by US$2,000 to help pay for your training. ]]> Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:19:07 -0500 http://www.flyhelicopter.net/mosquito-ultralight-helicopter/