The odds of getting through should be about the same.
Figure the odds by looking at the ratio of actual rotor area to the area of the rotor arc.
The odds of getting through should be about the same.
Figure the odds by looking at the ratio of actual rotor area to the area of the rotor arc.
Here is the same article as before but this one includes a good pic of one of the helos after a shot. All of the damage was caused by the disintegrating rotor.
Hey Turbo Dog, Air & Space magazine just did an article on a test site out west that shoots things at planes and helos. Was that where you worked?
Great article. It included pictures of a missle strike on an old F-14 propped up on a test bed.
Sort of, Gassendi. Same chunk of desert but different departments. I was in the Gun and Ammunition Engineering section. The bulk of my very small involvement with the helo test was characterizing and building the ammo they used. Those guys, who do most of the “stuff vs. planes” are the Weapons Survivability Lab guys (the guys in the bottom pic). They do cool stuff like putting a plane on a platform, turning the engines on, and blowing gigantic fans over it to simulate flight conditions and then shooting it with something to see what happens. We did a lot of work for them so we got to be around for a lot of their big tests. I had a running application to get into that department, but can you believe it… nobody ever wanted to transfer out! Amazing stuff they do, and a great bunch of guys.
It was their group doing the test, so I couldn’t get a pic credit, but they did give me a couple of the miniguns and bloopers that were in the nose of the helo’s for my lab. How can you not like guys who give you miniguns??
I remember when they first proposed it:
“Hey… can you make me some ammo? We are putting something together. Here’s what we wanna do. Whadda ya think”?
“I think you guys are stoned on jet fuel again”.
“Money is no object”.
“Do I get a front row seat for the test”?
“I’ll let you pull the trigger on one if we can make it work”.
“I am SO in on this… I love you man”!!
If you want to see what all goes on there, here is the website for the WSL http://www.nawcwpns.navy.mil/~survive/wsl2.htm