Commanche alternatives?

On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 23:07:41 -0500, "Kevin Brooks"
wrote:


"Peter Kemp" wrote in message
.. .
IMO the only significant difference between the, for the VVIP role is
that the EH101 has a hell of a lot more hours under it's elt and is
rather more proven.

The S-92 is a growth model of a proven design that is already in use by
HMX-1, and I doubt its flightworthiness is of issue.

Fair enough, but I'd have thought for the President you'd want a
rather more proven airframe. IIRC these are not *any* government
orders for the H-92 yet, although that's mainly due to a lack of
contracts to bid for (except a few European ones). Be interesting to
see how the H-92 versus EH101 contest in Canada ends up. The EH should
have the advantage after the Cormorant order, but who knows.

On the other hand NIH is likely to rule the day.
I agree however that for the CSAR role the extra lift and range of teh
-101 is likely to be decisive unless the Osprey hurries up.

I said it *at least* it stands an even chance, nothing about "decisive". It
does offer some advantages in range, payload, etc.--but nothing truly
outstanding, from what I have seen, in comparison to the S-92.

Checking JAWA today it looks like they have a virtually identical
cruise speed, but the EH101 has a 50% greater load and between 20% and
150% more range (not much in the way of comparable data). For a SF
mission or CSAR where armour and navair and weapons are likely to be
added I'd say that's a significant difference.

OTOH, the
S-92 offers greater commonality with the Blackhawk family that is in
widespread service. I just read where the Aussies have scrubbed the EH-101
from their list of competitors for a new support helo, while the UH-60M
remains in the hunt--that might tell you something about the EH-101 being
such a decidedly better platform than the S-92.

Not really, because as you say the S-92 isn't being bid as it's too
large, the same reason the EH101 was scrubbed (I was suprised the
Merlin even made the short list). So at most it says something about
bidding a large helicopter in a medium copter contest.
---
Peter Kemp

Life is short - drink faster