Slater Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Doesn't indicate what variant is involved, only an "Extended Range" type: http://www.dsca.mil/sites/default/files/mas/uk_18-40.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 (edited) UK has had it’s eye on MH47G for a while, but equally was looking at replacing some of the older HC4s https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/uk-plots-fresh-chinook-helicopter-acquisition-441025/ Edited October 19, 2018 by Dave Fleming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slater Posted October 20, 2018 Author Share Posted October 20, 2018 There appears to be a "Block II" CH-47 in development that features swept-tip rotor blades, uprated engine and transmission, better avionics, etc. In fact, the first few EMD examples seem to be currently in final assembly at Boeing. The Block II program looks to be on budgetary thin ice, though. US Army wants to reprogram money for it's future rotorcraft programs. Given the Army's recent history in big-ticket items, I wouldn't hold my breath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 Wonder if ER suggests big tanks like the HC3/5s? 16 seems a lot for a special ops buy, sounds more like Fs to replace the older airframes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandlapper Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 They can have the ones that fly over my house in the night. (I live near where the South Carolina Army National Guard trains CH47 pilots to fly at night. The magic is gone for me and the Chinook 🤬) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slater Posted October 20, 2018 Author Share Posted October 20, 2018 Apparently Miniguns are standard fit on UK Chinooks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 5 hours ago, Sandlapper said: They can have the ones that fly over my house in the night. (I live near where the South Carolina Army National Guard trains CH47 pilots to fly at night. The magic is gone for me and the Chinook 🤬) The wokka-wokkas got banned from flying over my parents village itself even though they used the farm at the end for training insertions. Presumably having a retired Air Commodore in the village helped. It's not what you know it's who you know! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truro Model Builder Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 Replacing some of the early ZA-serialled Chinooks has been mooted for a while, unsurprisingly seeing as they were originally built in 1981-ish. Perhaps Bravo November will have its well earned rest in the North West London home for Retired Aeroplanes and Helicopters after all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 11 hours ago, Slater said: Apparently Miniguns are standard fit on UK Chinooks? They have been on recent operations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jure Miljevic Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 The Survivor still survives? She should be transferred to BBMF. Cheers Jure 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted October 21, 2018 Share Posted October 21, 2018 On 10/20/2018 at 1:30 AM, Slater said: Apparently Miniguns are standard fit on UK Chinooks? They were used on RAF Chinooks in the 1991 Gulf War and have done ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Posts on PPrune imply these are MH47G standard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XV107 Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 On 10/20/2018 at 11:05 AM, Truro Model Builder said: Perhaps Bravo November will have its well earned rest in the North West London home for Retired Aeroplanes and Helicopters after all. At Cosford, one hopes - the way things appear to be going, someone would try standing BN on its nose so that the belly can be used for a big interactive touch screen if it ends up at Hendon. Or saw it in half with the ramp as the entrance to a new, exciting cafe and the cockpit as the food preparation area.... (Suspicions that I may not have been entirely impressed with some of the tales about 'great new ideas' I've heard from certain sources in the Colindale area are entirely well founded...) 6 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mackem01 Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 19 hours ago, XV107 said: At Cosford, one hopes - the way things appear to be going, someone would try standing BN on its nose so that the belly can be used for a big interactive touch screen if it ends up at Hendon. Or saw it in half with the ramp as the entrance to a new, exciting cafe and the cockpit as the food preparation area.... (Suspicions that I may not have been entirely impressed with some of the tales about 'great new ideas' I've heard from certain sources in the Colindale area are entirely well founded...) Not sensing alot of love for the new look RAFM..............Wonder why?😅? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaddad Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 (edited) On 10/20/2018 at 1:16 AM, Sandlapper said: They can have the ones that fly over my house in the night. (I live near where the South Carolina Army National Guard trains CH47 pilots to fly at night. The magic is gone for me and the Chinook 🤬) It's the sound of Freedom & I miss it. We used to get Harriers, Hercs., Tornado's, Jolly Greens, Chinooks, the occasional A -10 or A -7, now we get the odd BBMF on the way to an airshow. You could always tell that something was in the offing due to the increase in night training sorties. Edited October 25, 2018 by spaddad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 If they’re drawing down the ZA airframes, why have they only recently spent money upgrading them to MK. whatever (I’ve lost count). Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XV107 Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Not that recent for the first lot of airframes - the first to be upgraded to HC4 configuration had its first flight as an HC4 in late 2010... I imagine that the plan of action will be to retire 16 of the first lot of HC4s to be upgraded to that standard, with a dozen being reduced to produce, Bravo November going to Hendon (Cosford ought to get another given the significance of the Chinook to the RAF) and a couple of others going to museums as well. That'll leave the younger HC4s (the original Chinooks), plus 14 HC6s - the new builds - and the eight HC5s to be joined by these 16 airframes. I imagine that the end state will the HC4s being retired over time as new airframes - more HC6s - come into service and the overall fleet level being retained at about 60. 2 hours ago, Max Headroom said: (I’ve lost count). HC4 = Upgraded HC2 HC5 = Upgraded HC3 (the ones which didn't work for ages...) HC6 = new build CH-47F equivalent I assume that the MH-47Gs will be HC7s and that the aspiration for about 2040 will be a mix of HC6 and HC7 (which may have been upgraded to as yet-to-be-defined HC8 and HC9 standard by then). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairystick Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Possibly fitted with easy-fold blade system for use on QE? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 8 hours ago, hairystick said: Possibly fitted with easy-fold blade system for use on QE? Doesn't need it, QE's lifts are designed to take a Chinook unfolded, and I can't see the Uk paying for a bespoke rotor folding solution 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMK Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 52 minutes ago, Dave Fleming said: Doesn't need it, QE's lifts are designed to take a Chinook unfolded, and I can't see the Uk paying for a bespoke rotor folding solution Looks like it’s an off-the-shelf system already in use/in service with the US Army, not “bespoke”: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/us-army-europe-calls-for-more-ch-47-blade-folding-k-436711/ or more developmental: https://www.scoop.it/t/ch47/?&tag=rotor+fold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EwenS Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Folding rotors on the Chinook would make them infinitely easier to handle on the deck of QE & PoW not to mention that they wouldn’t eat into aircraft capacity so much. I recently came across an illustration somewhere pointing out that without the rotors the deck footprint of a Chinook is almost the same as that of a Folded Merlin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 I seem to remember that the wing folding kit was originally requested by the RAF for this very purpose and that it was the first customer. .......or was it for the Apache? Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairystick Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 (edited) On 10/26/2018 at 2:30 AM, Dave Fleming said: Doesn't need it, QE's lifts are designed to take a Chinook unfolded, and I can't see the Uk paying for a bespoke rotor folding solution Actually it really does need it. The quantity of space taken up by a 'Nook is massive, on deck or in the hangar. Just because they fit on the lift does not mean that they will always be used in this manner, but who know what the future will bring. Apache blades are able to fold for shipboard use. Then we have the Air Boss, wanting to stow aircraft because of weather conditions. Deciding to keep the multi million pound Dave-B's on deck so their radar-absorbing paint can deteriorate in bad weather, or let the blades on the 'Nooks get destroyed instead. No sign of a "Forth Road bridge" apparatus for them. Edited October 27, 2018 by hairystick 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandlapper Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 On 10/19/2018 at 8:16 PM, Sandlapper said: They can have the ones that fly over my house in the night. (I live near where the South Carolina Army National Guard trains CH47 pilots to fly at night. The magic is gone for me and the Chinook 🤬) They’re back. Come get them. Seriously. Help yourselves. 😵 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent K Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 On 10/25/2018 at 8:49 PM, Max Headroom said: If they’re drawing down the ZA airframes, why have they only recently spent money upgrading them to MK. whatever (I’ve lost count). Trevor But it's not really recent is it? it's not as if the contract is signed and they'll all be built tomorrow. By the time contracts are negotiated and signed and then manufacture starts and the delivery time happens, you'll be talking significantly in excess of 10 years time elapsed I suspect. Fleet replacement and planning both in the civil and military world takes years. Not a bad life for an upgraded airframe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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