Looks like a big Heavily Armed Coachman with propellers. 8^)
Posted on 11/18/2006 6:06:42 PM PST by SandRat
A powerful new combat rescue chopper may be whumping across Tucson skies in the not-so-distant future. The U.S. Air Force recently announced its chosen replacement for the aging HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters now flown from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
Starting in 2012, the Pave Hawk's search and rescue work gradually will be taken over by the much larger HH-47, a modified version of the Army MH-47 Chinook now used by special-operations soldiers.
"This is a major milestone for the combat search and rescue community, not only at D-M, but worldwide," said Col. Michael Kor-check, commander of the base's 563rd Rescue Group.
The Pave Hawk has performed well for two decades, but "its reliability has begun to suffer with age," Korcheck said.
The new helicopters are faster and roomier and have advanced communications, navigation and defense systems, he said. And they'll perform better at night, at higher altitudes or in bad weather.
The bigger cabin can hold more injured people and more medical workers to treat them, Korcheck added. Air Force combat rescuers are responsible for saving troops who have been shot down or otherwise become stranded in hostile territory. They also perform disaster-relief work in the aftermath of earthquakes and other tragedies, such as last year's Hurricane Katrina.
The service plans to spend up to $10 billion to buy 141 of the new choppers, increasing the size of its fleet by more than 30 percent. The Air Force now has 105 Pave Hawks stationed at various locations.
It isn't known yet how many of the new choppers will come to D-M. The Tucson base currently has 14 of the old ones assigned to active-duty and reserve units. An environmental-impact study is required before the base can introduce new aircraft here, D-M officials said.
There is potential for extra impact on the community because the HH-47 is so much larger and more powerful than the bird it is replacing.
"There's a big difference between these two aircraft," said aviation expert Barney King, a retired Army officer who flew helicopters for 20 years. He now oversees the professional-pilot flight program at Kansas State University at Salina, one of 21 accredited university aviation programs in the country.
King noted, for example, that the new rescue chopper is about 99 feet long, compared with about 65 feet for the old one. It can carry twice as many people and weighs twice as much at maximum capacity, and its engines are about three times as powerful.
The HH-47 will be "definitely louder," he said. But from a military aspect, the new craft is well-suited to search and rescue work, he added.
D-M spokesman Tech. Sgt. Jim Fisher said it may be years before comparative data on noise levels is available. Testing on the new helicopter won't even begin until 2009, he said.
Helicopter noise at D-M already is a matter of some public concern. A civic committee that studied ways to reduce noise from D-M recently recommended that the base look at changing some of its flight routes to funnel more helicopter traffic over Interstate 10, away from more populated areas.
Fisher said efforts to cut noise "will continue as planned."
******** Contact reporter Carol Ann Alaimo at 573-4138 or at calaimo@azstarnet.com
Looks like a big Heavily Armed Coachman with propellers. 8^)
"I have always lived around those noises and they sound.. comforting."
For nearly thirty years I've lived half a mile from a gun club and I find the popping sounds extremely comforting. They came the most on the weekends, of course, when people had time to spend the day shooting, so to me the sound is the sound of lazy Saturday afternoons. I can't imagine a weekend without them in the background.
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AMEN, LIVE HERE IN NAPERVILLE, WITH SHOTGUN CLUB IN PARK RESERVE, AND THE LIBERALS JUST WHINE,
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I still, to this day, as an almost 40 yr old mother, almost feel the whump-whump-whump of a helicopter before I can hear it, and drop everything and run outside to see it.
Needless to say, my kids (and hubby) think I'm a little wacky.
"AMEN, LIVE HERE IN NAPERVILLE, WITH SHOTGUN CLUB IN PARK RESERVE, AND THE LIBERALS JUST WHINE."
NO ONE whines in our town, I think they all get the facts that those noises mean jobs. We are heavily Republican though...
That is a picture of a pickup over Ithica, New York.
tooo funny... sad, but true. Escape From the Peoples DemocRATic Republic of Ithaca EVIL!!!
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