The U.S. Spent $7 Billion Developing This Helicopter It Never Built
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jhungary
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Many people don't understand why Comanche was cancelled. The answer, easy enough is one word.
NOISE
Unlike Stealth Fighter, which fly high in the sky, the observation of Stealth Fighter were solely depend on radar to find and locate the fighter, so a low obs fighter would be easy to hide inside enemy radar, hence stealth works.
However, for a attack/scout chopper, where most of their operational envelope is low on the ground, which mean even if you are completely hidden from enemy radar, you still can be spotted by what Churchill described as "Mark 1 eyeball" and you can do so when you hear the chopper flying low. And thus you can engage them, which sort of defeated the purpose of stealth.
On the other hand, while the Comanche had a "silent" rotor install, their noise level is still not acceptable by then standard, it was only slightly less loud than a Huey and Cobra and about the same noise level as a Apache.
And while the Army and or the folks in Boeing/Sikorsky have a choice to try to limit their noise level, however, the government have diverted the funding toward UAV and upgrade to other helicopter. That is the reason why the program falls apart.
Compare to an Apache Take off
Funny tho, the noise thing, they are supposed to be fixed in modern day, so maybe we will see a revive of RAH-66 in the near future?
They have actually, while the 2 prototype were handed down to museum and have regular flight tour or what not, all their spare part and technological breakthrough were kept in the Army.
Now, what I hear (cannot be confirmed) is that the Stealth Blackhawk was actually make from spare part of Comanche (noticeably the exhaust shield and the tail component). And the development were heavily influenced by it. So, not everything was lost.
Well, back in 1990s, the army is quite satisfy on the stealth capability, of course, it is not going to be enough by today standard, but back then, it was okay.
The Achille heels of this helicopter is the noise. It is so noisy, it render the stealth useless.
They are supposed to be light scout, not the same class as an Apache.
NOISE
Unlike Stealth Fighter, which fly high in the sky, the observation of Stealth Fighter were solely depend on radar to find and locate the fighter, so a low obs fighter would be easy to hide inside enemy radar, hence stealth works.
However, for a attack/scout chopper, where most of their operational envelope is low on the ground, which mean even if you are completely hidden from enemy radar, you still can be spotted by what Churchill described as "Mark 1 eyeball" and you can do so when you hear the chopper flying low. And thus you can engage them, which sort of defeated the purpose of stealth.
On the other hand, while the Comanche had a "silent" rotor install, their noise level is still not acceptable by then standard, it was only slightly less loud than a Huey and Cobra and about the same noise level as a Apache.
And while the Army and or the folks in Boeing/Sikorsky have a choice to try to limit their noise level, however, the government have diverted the funding toward UAV and upgrade to other helicopter. That is the reason why the program falls apart.
Funny tho, the noise thing, they are supposed to be fixed in modern day, so maybe we will see a revive of RAH-66 in the near future?
They have actually, while the 2 prototype were handed down to museum and have regular flight tour or what not, all their spare part and technological breakthrough were kept in the Army.
Now, what I hear (cannot be confirmed) is that the Stealth Blackhawk was actually make from spare part of Comanche (noticeably the exhaust shield and the tail component). And the development were heavily influenced by it. So, not everything was lost.
the porjected failed because ther was not much stealth, if i remember correct that was the reason. They have tested and the result was not much. Well they tried at least for a stealth chopper.
Well, back in 1990s, the army is quite satisfy on the stealth capability, of course, it is not going to be enough by today standard, but back then, it was okay.
The Achille heels of this helicopter is the noise. It is so noisy, it render the stealth useless.
They are supposed to be light scout, not the same class as an Apache.
dBSPL
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With one aspect, The Rah-66 project is aimed at a technological feasibility study. The results obtained from this have benefited many US aviation projects.
However, the main development reasons of this helicopter was different from the conventional attack helicopters, including the suppression of air defense threats and very low altitude special tasks.
Not only the RAH-66 but there is also the special ammunition types developed for this helicopter. For example Lockheed's Low Cost Autonomous Attack System (aka Locaas) . Network-centric combat and loitering cruise ammunition capabilities were studied on a helicopter platform with low noise and low radar visibility.
However that the helicopter platform for this type of tasks not be able to provide enough efficiency, the project was shelved. Rather than endure an overly expensive cost of production for conventional tasks, the other two platforms(Ah64 and Ah1) were able to carry on with much more useful loads.
However, the main development reasons of this helicopter was different from the conventional attack helicopters, including the suppression of air defense threats and very low altitude special tasks.
Not only the RAH-66 but there is also the special ammunition types developed for this helicopter. For example Lockheed's Low Cost Autonomous Attack System (aka Locaas) . Network-centric combat and loitering cruise ammunition capabilities were studied on a helicopter platform with low noise and low radar visibility.
However that the helicopter platform for this type of tasks not be able to provide enough efficiency, the project was shelved. Rather than endure an overly expensive cost of production for conventional tasks, the other two platforms(Ah64 and Ah1) were able to carry on with much more useful loads.
jhungary
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I think they actually did build the airwolf from a Bell-222
Yaseen1
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Stealth will not work in future after s500 which is capable of detecting stealth fighters and intercepting satelites at lower space and also 10 warheads at a time of mirv capable missile and will be operational by 2020 completely
