Eurocopter chopper has serious problems, Pentagon testers say

STAR-TELEGRAM ^ | 8/14/07 | Bob Cox

[Dubya]

But the aircraft cannot haul the desired loads at high altitude-hot day conditions and is too small or is not organized properly to allow a medical attendant to care for two critically ill patients on stretchers. It also said crew members, patients and passengers would become very uncomfortable due to the tightly sealed, but poorly air conditioned cabin

[cva66snipe]

And in other news today the Pentagon has ordered HumVees to be replaced with revised models of the Renault 10. /sarcasm

[A.A. Cunningham]

Based on the MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

[struwwelpeter]

Army officials did not return call seeking comment on the testing office report. Previously they said the UH-72 provided the most capability for the price.

In other words, the tests were fudged.

[RobbyS]

Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing? Evidently, not.

[TheBattman]

Nice.... I guess the Euros want to kill us too?

[Born to Conserve]

You get what you pay for.

Ugly little things.

[chiefqc]

Previously they said the UH-72 provided the most capability for the price.

Even a moron knows that you get what you pay for, I mean what the American tax payers pay for weather it’s good or bad.

[DoughtyOne]

The Army never specified a requirement that the helicopter be suited to caring for two critically ill patients at the same time, Hutcherson said, something not even required by civil medical evacuation aircraft. Seems like a wierd comment to me. I would expect the military to have a higher need of evac services.

[RobbyS]

Sometimes you get less than what you pay for. More often than not, the military pays the price of a Porsche to get a Volkswagen bug.

[DesScorp]

Why not just buy blackhawks?

This must be our token purchase from Europe.

[patton]

On the other hand, an elephant is a mouse designed to Army specs.

And it is afraid of mice.

[Ed Condon]

Well. you take bleed air from the compressor section of the engine to run the air conditioning, which will cool the cabin,
but, that reduces the power of the engines, so the hot day performance is worse.

[Diplomat]

The Army never specified a requirement that the helicopter be suited to caring for two critically ill patients at the same time, Hutcherson said, something not even required by civil medical evacuation aircraft.

I call b.s. on this one. Something that would require so much space in the bird is either obviously in the specification, or not in there. Someone is lying bigtime. This is not a simple misunderstanding. I say POLITICS got involved in this bid/award.

[DoughtyOne]

I think your on target. It doesn’t seem all that unclear that a helicopter in a war zone would need to fly at altitude to avoid identifcation and hostile fire.

Course we are talking about the Frogs here. Grin...

[Sandreckoner]

Eurocopter is a division of EADS, which of course is the parent of Airbus, and Airbus Military, which has been making acquisitions to position itself to compete against Boeing for tanker (and likely other large logistics aircraft) contracts. This has been championed by the likes of John McCain, particularly during his hyper-self-righteous period of anger against Boeing.

[liliesgrandpa]

Why can’t we buy something made in the United States for once?

[Dubya]

Thats what I say too.

[cva66snipe]

I call b.s. on this one. Something that would require so much space in the bird is either obviously in the specification, or not in there. Someone is lying bigtime. This is not a simple misunderstanding. I say POLITICS got involved in this bid/award.

They should have taken their medicine and bought Bell 430's. Holds two patients plus a trauma team. American designed, built, and American proven machine.

[cva66snipe]

Holds two patients plus a trauma team.

Paramedic and Flight nurse plus pilot and two patients and needed equipment.