Posted on 12/19/2018 6:21:09 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Yonhap) -- Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI), the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, on Tuesday unveiled a prototype of a Korean-made light armed helicopter (LAH).
KAI began to develop the 4.9-ton LAH in June 2015 and assembled the prototype helicopter last month. It aims to complete the development of the LAH, set to be used by the Army, by 2023, the company said in a statement.
"The company will make a series of ground tests from January to see if the prototype plane's engine and other systems work properly before it makes a test flight in May (2019) through July 2022," a company spokesman said.
This photo provided by KAI shows a prototype of Korean-made light armed helicopter. (Yonhap)
Looks like a Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin with hard points.
Little beefier than a Dauphin. Not a big fan of ducted tail rotors, though.
What are the pros/cons of ducted/non-ducted/ortho’d/whatever?
Styling as bad as their crappy KIAs.
Ping.
Never worked on a helo w/ a ducted tail rotor - and not a design engineer, but it just doesn't look natural. Like something one might find on a cute little French helicopter....
Quieter, better protected, more aerodynamic during cruse. But heavier, more expensive, less power during hover.
It is a modified Eurocopter Panther helicopter (the armed military variant of the Dauphin II civil helicopter. Compared to the standard Panther, the KAI LAH appears to be approximately 2-3 feet shorter (with the length removed from fuselage between rear of engine nacelle pods and horizontal stabilizer), and to have had the upper parts of the winglets at the ends of the horizontal stabilizer removed. I am not sure why KAI would have removed the upper portion of the winglets as the large winglets and tall, large area vertical stabilizer atop the Fenestron tail rotor gave the Dauphin/Panther series excellent lateral yaw-axis stability - something that would be needed to make the LAH a stable weapons platform. The Panther was a good starting point though as it was a reasonably fast, long range helicopter with a good blend of stablity/maneuverability and payload. The space inside the Panther/LAH would allow for carriage of additional fuel, munitions, or crew (possibly to operate the electro-optical/laser targeting system seen on the nose).
Calvin Locke:
“What are the pros/cons of ducted/non-ducted/ortho’d/whatever?”
Pros are that the Fenestron type enclosed tail rotors have a lower noise signature than a traditional tail rotor and are less susceptible to incidental damage than a traditional non-enclosed tail rotor.
As for cons - the Fenestron type tail rotors are slightly more mechanically complex than a traditional tail rotor, but that is more than made up for by the reduced noise and protection of the tail rotor shroud.
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