Posted: 7/21/2006 8:56:23 PM EDT
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ARH-70A First Flight Farnborough, England – July 20, 2006 – Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, today announced that the Bell ARH-70A completed its first two flights Thursday, July 20, 2006. The aircraft took off from Bell XworX in Arlington, Texas and flew multiple handling maneuvers, flew in a hover for both in and out of ground effect, and flew in a traffic pattern reaching 80 knots, 500 ft. altitude, with banks up to 30 degrees for a little more than 1.5 hours of flight. The flights delineate the ARH program as one of the fastest 'contract to flight' programs ever completed and set a new standard for such acquisitions. Commenting on the flights Bell Chief Executive Officer, Mike Redenbaugh, said "This is an outstanding day for Bell and our customer, the U.S. Army. The ARH-70A is needed for the war on terror that is being fought by our military. This flight begins a new phase in the development of the aircraft and brings it closer to beginning the mission it was designed to execute." The first flight also demonstrated the unique ARH teaming relationship between Bell and the U.S. Army with both a Bell and Army pilot conducting the operations. Bell test pilot Jim McCollough and Army pilot CW5 Alan Davis performed pilot and co-pilot operations, proving that the Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) platform approach can be successfully applied to military applications. The ARH-70A is a complete weapons system designed to meet aerial reconnaissance capabilities to operate with the current and future force. Equipped with lethal weapons capability, net-centric connectivity and is equipped for day and night operations. Taken together the equipped aircraft enables the air-ground maneuver commander to "see-understand-act first." "Today's first flight marks a major milestone for the ARH-70A as the program transitions into the flight test phase," stated Bell's ARH-70A program manager Bill Leonard. "Our Team's focus continues to be towards the completion of the build and functional test of the remaining three test aircraft, clearing the path towards a successful Limited Users Test (LUT), and finishing the production design." The program schedule has LU beginning late 2006 to early 2007, in order to complete the production award criteria required to accomplish the first unit equipped in fourth quarter FY 2008 and Full-Rate production in FY 2009. Bell Helicopter is an industry-leading producer of commercial and military, manned and unmanned vertical lift aircraft and the pioneer of the revolutionary tilt rotor aircraft. Globally recognized for world-class customer service, innovation and superior quality, Bell's global workforce serves customers flying Bell aircraft in more than 120 countries. Textron Inc. is a $10 billion multi-industry company operating in 33 countries with approximately 37,000 employees in continuing operations. The company leverages its global network of aircraft, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others. More information is available at www.textron.com. ETA: Pics? |
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It sucks that the cool MD explorer with that NOTAR thingie got shafted for both the LUH and ARH program. If I recall someone on this board worked on the design of MD helicopter. Apparently the LUH has been decided on and the eurocopter 145 is it. Is it just me or are these shifty Euro conglomerates winning too many US military contracts recently?? The Marine One contract and now this... |
The LUH, from what I've seen is designed to save money by providing an alternative to the UH-60 for 'air taxi' missions... Basically, the Blackhawk is too big & expensive to run for alot of the missions it flies - as an example, my brigade has used them to ferry aircraft parts to a field site. The reason for this was TIME - they had aircraft down waiting for parts, and a ground-based log run would take too long (4-6hrs). Similar flights were made to move small groups of personell (2-4) to and from the rear... A smaller, lighter utility bird could have done all this, at a much lower cost of operations... The Army is betting, basically, that the cost of ops for the LUH will result in more savings than the purchase price... The ARH is a replacement for the MD-500/OH-6 and the OH-58... It's a light-attack/recon bird... Armed recon would generally indicate a 2-pilot-no-passengers/cargo config, ala OH-6, or AT MOST a 4-place-no-cargo config ala OH-58 (the OH58 'back seat' is about as 'roomy' as the back seat of a Cessna 172 (eg smaller than that of a Pontiac Firebird). While you can cram 2 soldiers in there, it's not going to leave room for any more 'gear' than 2 full rucksacks)... Not exactly a good utility config... Basically your 'merge' suggestion would be like trying to merge the AH-64 and UH-60 into one aircraft. The Russians tried it with the Hind - it was a very poor gunship, not a great utility bird, and subsequently they switched to a proper 2-place, no passenger/cargo AH in all future designs... |
The OD bird on the front page is the damn OH-58 'Kiowa Warrior' The flash-program shows the LRH, which is (if you look at iit closely) simply an upgraded OH-58  ... |
That's the 58 Which is what is shown on the front page, in OD green... Click on the 'LRH' link on that page to see the 'new' product... Which is the OH-58 modified & upgraded for newer weapons, with an OH-6 style chin sensor suite instead of the mast-top system... Oddly enough, there is still no integral gun system, the 'gatling gun' mentioned is an external pod-mounted fixed-position system, ala OH-6 (Blackhawk Down).... I would think that a NEW bird would at least have a 7.62mm (if not a 20mm) turret... |
There will be no room in the ARH for anything other than mission equipment. Initially there were thoughts that the ARH could carry a couple of pax when needed, but the latest info I have seen shows no place to put them anymore. Just waiting impatiently to get my hands on one... 
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Looking at the specs of the ARH, ya, it does look like it would be getting cramped. But couldn't they add the same surveillance equipment from the ARH to the LUH UH-145? It does look to be one of those nimble little things the Europeans are so fond of...  *shrug* If it truly is a case of the UH-145 not being suitable for use (with the addition of the right gear) in a recon role, then Arfcom it and get both. But I hope it isn't a case of the ARH team not talking to the LUH team or pork-barrel procurement or something like that. |
LUH is too big... If you actually see an OH-6/AH-6 (MD 500 in the civvie world) or OH-58 (the basis for the ARH) vs a Huey or Blackhawk, it will be more apparent... UH-sized helos (even small ones) aren't fast/nimble enough for recon & light-attack roles... The extra size means extra weight, and less performance. Add in the sensor suite to the bigger chopper, and you have even more weight and worse suitability.... |
The biggest problem is space, with the addition of commo, sighting, and weapons equipment in the cabin there is little room left. In addition, the fuel tank has been enlarged for the ARH versus the base -58 to increase mission duration, so there went even more room. I have no info on the specs of the LUH at all, so I don't know if there is enough growth potential to allow the addition of the ARH missions, although I seriously doubt it. Like Dave_A stated, if you try to combine the two missions/requirements, you'll end up with a Huey/Blackhawk sized aircraft. Think of the McNamara F-111B fiasco. |
That link was supposed to be to the First Flight press release page, but instead it just goes to the main Bell page. But that page has a link to First Flight, which has the pictures in COLE-CARBINE's above. Those pictures are indeed the ARH, serial number 53903, taken on Thursday during it's first flight. |
It still needs the MMS instead of the chin mounted sensors. My ex-girlfriends dad from High School is the Bell Test Pilot, James McCollough. He used to hate me when I was dating his daughter and took her to the prom in a rented Jag. He tore up all our pictures together, lol. Good guy, great pilot. |
Doesn't everyone hate their daughter's boyfriend?  Yeah, Jim is definitely a good pilot.As for the MMS, with current uses, the chin mount is probably more appropriate. In urban situations, you're probably going to run into depression issues, looking through the blades, etc. You can avoid a lot of that from the chin. (I think this was discussed in greater detail in a previous thread, but it was some time ago) |
I thought this was the OH58D replacement..... Well, best I could do on short notice was take a pic of a pic.....this photo was almost 11 years ago. 
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