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The Helicopter You Could Hear Seven or Eight Miles Away
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ต.ค. 2022
- Thirty years before achieving the pinnacle of helicopter technology with the design of the legendary AH-64 Apache, the Hughes Aircraft Company ventured into the emerging rotor aircraft industry for the first time by attempting to develop a colossal helicopter like the world had never seen before.
As the Hughes XH-17 prototype prepared for its maiden flight on October 23, 1952, pilot Gale Moore was visibly anxious. He was about to test the aircraft with the most oversized rotor in the world, with a diameter of 130 feet.
The pilot knew that despite the engineering efforts, the massive hollow rotor blades were under tremendous strain, and they could snap at any moment during takeoff.
Media crews from around the country gathered to witness the event, and even Howard Hughes was first in line.
Suddenly the jet engines ignited ferociously and flames shot from the ends of the rotor blades, with the Los Angeles Times later reporting: (QUOTE) “The whoosh-whoosh of the whirring blades sounded like hundreds of artillery shells in flight. You could hear it seven or eight miles away.”
What happened next would be forever recorded in the history of aviation…
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The XH-17 used what was called a "Cold Cycle" system where the turbines are used to channel compressed air through hollow rotor blades and before exiting via narrow tubes at the blade's trailing edge are ignited providing the energy to make the rotors spin. Some time afterwards Hughes Helicopter developed the XV-9A for the Army. This utilized a "Hot Cycle" rotary system where instead of using compressed air from the engine's compressor the thrust from the engine's hot exhaust is the propulsive force used to make hollow rotors spin by means of vanes located at the very end of the blade tips.
That’s fascinating
Thank you for sharing this info, astounding is all I can say.
Though on second thought, pumping fuel using inertia means it would be difficult to manage rotor speed. There's a high positive feedback cycle between fuel pressure and rotor velocity, so increasing thrust would require the throttles to be opened, then closed (possibly even below the previous position).
There was one tip jet helicopter that made it into production and also carry more than one person, the French Sud-Ouest SO 1221 Djinn. It used a cold cycle and held an altitude record for some time.
@@pseudotasuki is thisnwhy he saidnits liek a pogo stick ?
Here I am flying my $40 quadcopter in my living room, 70 odd years later. Absolutely crazy.
Brilliant point.
here i am flying my $800 dji drone lol
@@deebo3864 🤔
@@deebo3864 the mobula 6 is an absolute riot indoors. Give it a shot!
Kinda sad how it's gone backward.
My Dad told me about this flight. He and his buddies laughed and said would never get off the ground and if it did the pilot would never be able to land it. The rest is history and still moving forward.
Makes you wonder what else he was wrong about...
Well with a operational distance of 40 miles it may as well have not flown. Its more fuel efficient to drive at that point.
@@JosephDawson1986
Generally speaking,
helicopters are not exactly known for fuel efficiency and the military isn’t really known to care.
The only time they care is if it interferes with mission capability.
@@j.griffin even the US military considers a heavy lift helo with a range of 40 miles as useless
Your dad was stupid for not have faith in daddy hues
Say what you want about Howard. He never dreamed small.
The loudest aircraft I've ever heard was a Harrier. From about 5 miles it sounded like it was about two blocks away.
Even as loud as it is, it could sneak up on the hapless Russians occupying the Ukraine.
I grew up in Bangor, ME and we had an air refueling wing at the base there. Growing up it was KC135s and they made so much noise that businesses near the airport started a jet noise is the sound of Freedom campaign
@@flyoverstateresident2890
In normal flight I doubt it is any louder than most other aircraft. But hovering 😬
@@JosephDawson1986 The loudest aeroplane ever built was the Republic XF-84H Thunderscreech, fitted with a supersonic propellor. They could be heard 25 miles away & their prop's shock-wave was so powerful it was capable of knocking a man to the ground. Needless to say, they didn't work, too well.
@@mpetersen6 Would love to see and hear it.
I'm loving this series about obscure, little known aircraft. Thanks Dark Skies!
I have an old helicopter book that mentions this machine and has a distant photo of it. It doesn't give much detail. It certainly doesn't mention Howard Hughes' involvement. This was refreshing. Thank you.
This monster helicopter was parked at the Hughes Aircraft facility near Marina Del Rey, CA. for years, while I was a kid - would pass by it often on Lincoln Bl. Don't recall ever seeing it with the rotors going around, and I don't think it was ever deemed safe enough to fly over all the residential and commercial properties that surrounded it.
I have the same recollection.
Back then I was a kid that was crazy about helicopters. My favorite TV show was "Whirlybirds."
same here, grew up in the '60s a couple blocks from those cliffs in Westchester overlooking Lincoln and Hughes, MDR, Jefferson etc. Dirt clod fights, running all those errant RC gliders back up the hill to the adults for a dime each. Tall tales about this "top secret" copter somewhere near but never got close enough to see it, ha
Me too, Culver City boy. I witnessed a demonstration between a F4 Phantom Fighter and a Cobra Attack Helo. They had bleachers and bunting. It was a speed demonstration and the Cobra kept up with the Douglas F4 Phantom.
I grew up in Point Loma, San Diego during the 60's and 70s. My dad was a resistance welder in the space industry at Lockheed Martin, so I was obsessed with all things aviation. Needless to say I've seen more crazy Airforce airshows at Brown Field and Naval Fleet Week exhibitions on the Bay than I can remember. Good times.
I just had to add that the F4 Phantom's top speed is 1,473 and the H-1 Cobra's top speed is 141mph so it's kind of an unfair fight. But with full flaps and an 18.3% angel of attack, the F4's carrier approach speed just happens to be 141mph. Hooyah!😮👍
@@Datsun510zen here's what I witnessed I parked over there kind of near the Lopez Ranch somewhere there. I saw the bunting on the bleachers and of crowds out there the Cobra was hovering above the deck the Phantom was setting still then all of a sudden they both took off it was neck and neck for about a mile or two until the Phantom just blew right past it but point is the helicopter kept up with a jet on takeoff for a while it was pretty impressive. I'm going to go look and see if there's any video of that.
Could not find anything.
The concept looks like the predecessor to the Sikorsky CH-54 Sky Crane.
I immediately thought of that heli when i saw this video and wondered the same
CH-54 and Hiller Tip-jet helicopter both came to my mind.
Darn shame there is no actual audio of the Hughes XH-17 in this video.
Back in the early 90's I had a VHS tape on the history of helicopters, it was really fascinating and showed many unusual and little known early choppers. One of the very unusual helicopters it showed was one, also from Hughes, that had a single, very large, rotor blade. And as unbelievable as it sounds, there was a video of it actually flying. I still remember the narrator saying that the huge blade turned at a lazy 60 rpm. I long ago lost the tape and I've searched several times on the internet for information about a helicopter with a single blade but never found anything. Perhaps your research skills are better than mine, that might make for an interesting video.
Gotta look now !!
Single blade with a counterweight on the other side?
@@JCAtkeson3 …shaped in the form of a blade? Maybe it was a sycamore falling from a tree… kids… imagination and whatnots.
@@112chapters3 gatekeep all you want, he's not the only person who's seen this
@@112chapters3 google is a thing; Bo.102 and Bo.103. though these are not the helicopter in question as it was much larger. i also recall seeing it.
Similar to the Fairey Rotodyne which also utilised tip jets for the main rotor. It never made it past the prototype phase because for a city centre to city centre transport is was sodding loud.
they had a new design of tip jets that would reduce the noise a lot, from 113 db to 96 db, at 600 ft,but Fairey merged with Westland and the government stopped paying for the developement due to cost overruns and the dire economic status of the UK as well as a lack of orders
Some say the pilot is still putting his helmet on to this day
This guy deserves 6 million subscribers. At the beginning I thought he spoke too fast even for me being native English speaker, but I can’t get enough of his awesome quality videos now. Keep up the amazing work sir 👍🏼
Most people thought his ass was on fire when he spoke.
He has slowed down a bit recently. I watched the earlier videos at 0.75x speed !
He deserves 6.2 million subscribers and not 1 more.
He’s a voice actor hired by a business made up of researchers and historians
He speaks like a person who is talking to a room full of smart people, but really that room is full of a cross section of the typical public and publicly educated...
Love the weird and relatively obscure stuff. I've had books on aircraft since I was a kid, and finding a story I don't know is rare... thanks for bringing this one to me.
Also, many people have heard the story of the special C-130 fitted with rockets built to rescue hostages... but there was a short take off version that predates it by some time that used bleed air/blown flaps. There is very little info out there and if someone could tell that story, that would be awesome.
There were a few aircraft experimentally fitted air bleed systems to improve performance in the 50s or 60s. They had a really hard time keeping all of the air channels and ducts clean.
You might be thinking of the YC-14 and/or YC-15
I’m almost certain there is an episode on that on of his other channels. You are talking about the plane meant to land and take off from a football field to evacuate civilians?
@@AreUmygrandson No... that's the one everyone has seen. This was developed many years prior and worked off of bleed air/blown flaps.
C-130B BLC I think.
There's videos on that C-130. It was to be used to get the hostages out of Iran but that aircraft was destroyed in a test.
Yeah you need to hear the Osprey. Those things are so freakin loud you hear those coming for miles too.
It's always a risk when you place too many new concepts/ technologies into a single new project. Progress can only "successfully" be made 1 step at a time. But (I think) we all have to admire Howard Hughes for all of the leaps forward he both tried & accomplished as his companies pushed the envelope toward state of the art aviation.
He was a brilliant maverick.
We have some examples of that risk, rearing it’s ugly head in the form of…
F-35, LCS, Zumwalt to name a few and the list of canceled projects that racked up huge bill$, is even more horrifying.
Rock, usually these technologies are proven in proof of concept platforms. 1 off aircraft. Then incorporated together in the original design prototypes. The F22 is an example. Both the YF22 & it's competitor the YF 23 used the same proven concepts: ie stealth coatings, material shapes, vectoring systems, engines & such. 1 plane's goal was stealth, payload & range, sacrificing maneuverability. Using stealth as it's main defense. Larger & sluggish. The other stealth & fighting capabilities @ expense of the other 3. Smaller & nimble. Both manufactures had the same access to these technologies. The F22 won because it was a better fighter jet with stealth capability. Lose your stealth cover & now your dog fighting. Hughes aim was 2 use as many proven concepts (rudimentary at the time & not 2days standards) as possible & go big with it. Think of Howard Hughe's Spruce Goose. Remember all the off the shelf parts used? NASA did the same in the 60s to prove fly by wire, later on also proved it could fly a jet with reversed swept wings. Both used off the shelf parts combined with new technology. Now fighters world over & airliners use it.
Yet another accomplishment of Howard Hughes!
That is truly a Frankencopter. Very interesting bit of chopper history. 👍
When I a Signal Corps guy in 1970, an AMPAC engineer ordered a kit and built a built a one-man 'copter. Only flew it a little, then a Thai Army chopper followed him back and they stayed and watched as he dismantled it and boxed it to ship
back home.
Apparently Howard Hughes philosophy was “go big or go home”
And it worked
I had the pleasure of watching 3 AH-64s fly over my house last night. My daughter got to see them too. I didn't know what they were until I saw them but they were pretty loud. Probably took 30 seconds or so before I saw them and I first heard them when I was in my house. I knew it would be cool whatever it is lol
You ever hear a CH53E coming in hard?
You can hear those from 20 miles away!
Not only gigantic rotor blades, but gigantic rotor blades with afterburners.
Another great video from dark skies. Well done sir. Well done. The lesson I learned from this video is when big just isn't big enough, who do you call? Howard Hughes that's who.
This is like a Mad Max scrapper's build.
Hughes was a strange and unusual man who wasn't afraid to take on what were for that era strange and unusual projects.
Maybe you should squeeze and ambitious in your description somewhere too. What have you accomplished with your life?
@@byloyuripka9624 Bill p post isn't negative but yours is, aggressive one.
I live near a military base, and I'm pretty sure you can hear any military helicopter from 10 miles away.
What a gift - clever engineers, brave pilots, and visonary businesspeople. Thanks for making this excellent video
Just look at the massive helicopters the US is starting to put in service. MASSIVE . Great clip!
Howard Hughes was a legend...I like him just the way he was....
Yeah but could you hear fortunate son from 7 or 8 miles away?
Unrelated, but I had a formation of 4 apaches fly over my house once, I can confirm they were EXTREMELY loud even at the somewhat high altitude they were at.
Chinooks can be loud, too.
Couple of those things flew over - at low altitude - where I live a few years back. They shook the ground.
When lived nearby, Sundays were pre-delivery test flight days... where the helicopters built during the week would be flown over our neighborhoods and out over the ocean. A few people complained about the 'noise", but it would always be mid-morning, about the same time every Sunday, and most everyone felt proud that their work was being delivered, ensuring our military personnel would come home safe.......... The sad part, no one on these projects were even allowed to say they worked at HAC due to the tight security.
It's not about making something ridiculous work, it's about learning all the lessons along the way. We used to be fearless in the face of failure and it allowed for incredible innovations and learning to take place. Now, not so much.
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If you are an American aircraft company that needs an idea or actual aircraft that is absolutely bat shit crazy, there are two people to go to. One was Kelly Johnson. The other was Howard Hughs!
Wow... well done you for educating me on an obscure historic air craft, keep up the good work this is what the interweb is all about, education, information and wonder.
I liked all of your videos that I have seen here and your other channels. I have learned a lot and appreciate the history as well. Thank you for all that you do and keep up the great work!
What an amazing video!
_(Despite my reading a couple of books on the life of Howard Hughes, this event seems to have missed my eye... Shows how great a guy he was)_
Recommendation for best book?
He had some issues, for sure. Lionize him if you must.
@@ChemEDan Howard: The Amazing Mr. Hughes Mass Market Paperback - March 1, 1972
by Noah Dietrich (Author)
@@toothlessseer3153 Thanks I put it on my list :)
thats one heck of a franken helicopter
im surprised this many parts from different machines didn't just fell apart
I love the vintage style diction of the videos produced in this channel.
The narrator mentioned the historical date this sky crane took it's successful first flight was October 23rd 1952. And I'm watching this Documentary for the first time October 23rd 2022..... .. .exactly 70 years when this took place.
With a video title like that, I would liked to have heard some audio of it flying. Great video.
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I admire Hughes Aircraft. They took on projects no one else would attempt. HAC had many firsts. Not all made money but progress was made.
You're right! I can say that many of the projects were "handed" to either HAC or Aerospace Corporation by the government when other companies just could not "make them work". This included the Tomahawk Missile (Raytheon originally), Phalanx defense system (General Dynamics originally) just to name a few......
Great video.
I expected to hear ,"The craft got fifty feet in the air, started shaking and exploded into pieces , killing it's pilot and closing the Hughes division for good."
I'm glad it ended well and the Hughes corporation made good on the effort.
Kind of reminds me of how Howard got the Spruce Goose to fly for a short distance and then parked it permanently.
He made his point and moved on from there with more successes.
No need to test failure.
Best comment
You can hear ANY helicopter from "seven or eight miles away." I was on the Test and Evaluation for the 11th Air Assault Division, which became the 1st Cavalry Division, and I have an Air Medal for being the ground commander in the back seat of a Huey in Vietnam. If the weather is right, you hear them coming. If the weather is wrong, you don't. Mostly a function of the environment. Anyway, they never fielded that concept, so it is kind of moot.
Wow! Cool! Thank you!
I would love to see a modern take on this design...Could you imagine how powerful they could make it these days!?
I was thinking the same thing, with today's materials they could make the rotors strong and heat resistant. Seems like missed opportunity to me.
@@jesusisalive3227 absolutely! I know there’s already other ‘sky cranes’ out there but a newer version of this would be bonkers!
Fairey with their rotadyne programme and prototype showed that major improvements were possible
I am a simple man - I see b&w helicopter - I hear CCR in my head :)
Incredible Video and what a monstrosity of machinery. Well Done Sir.
Man I just LOVE these type of videos!
I've had the privilege of going on helicopter rides in a Hughes 300 and 500 models. Fascinating story! Thank you!
Howard, where ever you are… thank you.
1 word: Beautiful.
You can hear an UH-1M for over 10 miles.
The rotors were hollow and had a short shelf life and could snap at any moment? They've said that twice now. This seems like a deal breaker to me, and going back to the drawing board, a must. I mean what kind of sane pilot would attempt to fly something like that?
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That was the "concern" of some "Experts" outside of the company...... Inside, they were confident they had a solid principle that they could succeed with.
I love videos and information about these lesser known aircraft. Excellent video…🍻
What an interesting helicopter, never heard of it until now. What isn't mentioned is that it was shelved due to it being highly inefficient, and it only had a 30-40 mile range. I couldn't find any information on what became of it though.
"Status Scrapped" (Wikipedia)
If I had a time machine I would go back in time to see maiden flights of all aircraft
YESS!!! MORE HOWARD HUGHES STUFF!
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
The speed of the outer most part of that giant rotor must have been insane.
JEEEEEEZUZ that's a BIG B!TCH !! Thanks for that, until now, I didn't even know that existed. I had hear/seen videos of other Helicopter type vehicles that had propellas driven at the wig tips, but this, it's on a nother level!
Just like a Hughes 500. Extreme adrenaline.
Modern tech today could make that thing a reality. It's interesting from an engineering perspective.
An Apache almost landed on top of my vehicle on the range one nite ......that was close call
Excellent content, excellent presentation. Thank you.
The information and video footage repeats itself after the first minute.
WOW!!!
See that’s amazing to me! I had no idea that Howard Hughes had something to do with the Apache helicopter?! I was in the Army and was in the Iraqi war from 2002-2005. Mduring that time bye, Road in quite a number of military aircraft. And I never learned ANY of this cool information.!!Thank you very much for this info👌👍
My wife worked at Hughes Helicopters and was part of the team that created the Apache AH 64 Helicopter! The avionics/weapon systems for the Cobra was developed there as well (but a different team). Although the plant site was small (by comparison), they had always had a very close relationship with Bell & Sikorski (including Howard himself)! There were many SAP/SAR (above top-secret) helicopters and related avionics projects that were successfully created there.... my wife worked on the LHX (which regardless of what is told actually was produced), NOTAR and a variety of highly specialized "stealth" type helicopters for special purposes... including a handful of special purpose (special forces) built for the Olympics in Europe and when we had the Olympics in Los Angeles (1980's0 Hughes built specially modified Hughes 500 helo's for the "show"!
Culver City was also the site where the "Gatling Gun" issues were resolved. Developed by other companies in water cooled, air cooled and hydraulic cooled versions, they each suffered from heat related jamming at one point or another. HAC was asked to take on the problem, and they did. The back side road off of Lincoln had a yellow light posted with a sign that said "if this light is flashing do not enter". This was for (safety reasons" when they were doing gatling gun testing or "special" engine testing (the exhaust discharge was pointing towards the part of the roadway).
Thsi was also where they developed "The Quiet One", literally the 1st stealth helicopter for the CIA... it was used in the early days of Vietnam, IIRR it was Hughes 500, they redesigned the rotor blades to create increased lift, used 4 rotor blades instead of 2 which then they slowed the rotor blade speed about 50% (IIRR), used a radar absorbing paint and then affixed/developed a "White Noise" generator to cancel out rotor blade sound... and developed a new exhaust system/muffler for the engine which allowed the aircraft to fly literally just above the treelines, go undetected until it had passed over you.
Ahhh it was a jet tip rotor. Surprised these haven't turned up in Kerbal Space Program.
Great video. I had not seen this helicopter. Thanks for posting.
Love the chanel !!! Thanks Dark
Thanks
I love all ur channels!
Well done.👍
Love it just love it all bro
Your narration is exquisite now buddy!!
It looks like a sci-fi Korean War field invention. It's a military-style rat rod with a helicopter fuselage, jet engines, a tiny tail rotor and stilts.
AWSUM video. Love seeing this sort of stuff. Keep it up. Thanks!
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Wish you had the sound that the blades made, in your very informative video. Great work my friend.
It sounded like this: THUNKA THUNKA THWAP - THUNKA THUNKA THWAP. Except much louder.
@@terry_willis lmao
Can you imagine what they could do if they had the technology that they do today I'm surprised nobody has tried to make a helicopter that big again in modern day it would be cool to see
Look up the Mil V-12…
What you get when you try to build a version of the C-130 but as a helicopter…
196 passenger capacity.
Thank you.
I run to get a clear view of blade noise I'd heard so often in a foreign war.
Loud and heard for miles, it was. Returning with the dead and living I'd
see a brief cloud of blood sucked outside as the side doors opened. My
line-hung laundry had a pink tint thanks to a downward rush of soiled air.
wow! look at those rotor blades!
It blew my mind when he said the rotors only spun 88rpm , slow as hell compared to today's standards.
slow as hell compared to then standards too.
What a mean looking contraption 🙂 I love that this existed
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Amazing Technology and its just crazy when you consider scale compared to what they end up like which they could of technically done back then if they had the knowledge.
As humans we tend to forget so much we will have the same goal but end up with multiple ways to get there
This helicopter is insane... I'd like to hear it compared to the CH-53. It's hard to fathom anything being louder than the Sea Stallion... Or, even the Chinook at distance... The low rotor RPM on this helicopter is just mind boggling... I get the blade size, but when I first flew in a UH-1 Huey, I couldn't believe we lifted off at that RPM. I wonder what the controls felt like? Must have been sluggish... I'm surprised the tail blades could actually keep up with the mains torque...
Watch the video again. There was no torque from the main rotor since it was tip jet driven. That's why they were able to use such a tiny tail rotor as all they had to overcome was friction from the main bearing in the swashplate.
About the torque 4:46
With tip jets there really wasn't any need for a tail rotor as the torque isn't coinciding with the helos center of gravity. I supposed they used a tail rotor for better stabilization.
@@whoknows8678 could you imagine the Temps that swash plate bearing would reach?
With all the talk about how it sound it would be nice to actually hear it.
Brings new meaning to the saying, go big or go home!
Amazing
pretty sweet vid
Outstanding Story.
I could hear the XH-17 with my speakers off.
sad story: I wanted to be a helicopter instructor as a child but ended up doing 20yrs of manual labor. Awesome video! Peace and God bless.
You should fight hard for your dreams. Fight like "if you don't fight, you die". That's how Howard Hughes made his dreams works.
Im glad to see the narrator slowing down on speaking. When i watched the channel a while ago he spoke super fast making it difficult to understand
I live by a military airbase, I’ve heard every type of NATO fighter. F22- god damn. That isn’t loud, it’s harmonically loud. It vibrates your bones.
The biggest issue with this design is the fact that it used a two-blade rotor, which is itself due to the inefficiency inherent to the use of bleed air and tip jets. At the time, turboshaft engines (which are now commonplace in helicopters) were already available, and could have been used to power compressors. This would supply large volumes of (relatively) low-velocity air to three or four shorter rotor blades. The result would be higher fuel efficiency, less strain on the blades, and the ability to operate out of smaller clearings.
After some cursory research, I'm even more perplexed that this isn't the solution they chose. There were already helicopters in production which used compressors powered by turboshaft engines.
Notable examples are the Sud-Ouest Ariel and Djinn, which had been flying since 1947 and 1953, respectively. Too late for the XH-17, but nevertheless provided a clear solution to its drawbacks.
Aha, ok. That's exactly what the XH-28 did! Turboshaft engines powering compressors injected into a four-blade rotor. It came late, I guess.
@@pseudotasuki IMHO, the overall project was in place, paid for by the US Army, and they didn't want to do such a major redesign just see if "we" can fix the issues with the current design to make it fly. This happens with alot of projects where the customer says, well, is it cheaper to overcome the existing engineering issues or are we better off starting new........
I used to live near a Navy Seal training area. A location used for a scene in a certain movie featuring real Seals.
One night at dusk I knew they were training and using the airfield next to my home.
I walked out to see. Sometimes they’re riding in a boat under a Chinook or something crazy like that. Hell. They’ve even para dropped into my high school commons area one morning.
Anyways. Stepped out and I heard a sudden whoosh of air and saw what looked like a black hawk with edges more similar to stealth fighters. It was over me when I heard it and very low just over the trees. The silhouette was very visible against the setting sun.
It was definitely one of those stealth blackhawks. It was eerily quiet. Like wind. But not even a strong wind.
Does anybody know if this aircraft was actually scrapped or is it in a museum somewhere?
A Goliath off a helicopter. Its operation was probably cancelled due to the fact that its slow speed and loud rotor would have made it an easy target.
what an amazing aircraft . rotor tip powered. there were others as well with scram jets at the tips .
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