Does anyone know if the govt. has ever tried to make real “BHs”? It seems to me that at least they would have tried to put a bunch of bullhorns on the side of one, and broadcast out of phase noise to quiet them. Whether it’s really a feasible idea is a different story.
So, anyone ever heard of that, or know if it has a remote chance of working?
Actually, I have heard of broadcasting out of phase noise to quiet aircraft; I’m pretty sure it’s been tried. I don’t know if it failed, was too expensive, or what; someone around here will probably know.
If it was successful, you’d never hear it.
yuk yuk yuk
DHR
I know that Volkswagen experimented with a similar system to dampen the noise inside their cars; however it had the added effect of cancelling out speech too, as the computer couldn’t tell the difference reliably between ambient noise and speech, so the project hasn’t been realised yet.
I thought there was a car muffler for sale in the aftermarket that does this, but I could easily be wrong. My guess is that it would be comparably expensive.
The answer is yes. Helicopter manufacturers have been after the elusive “stealth” helicopter since the day they took flight.
Problem with your bull horn solution is that the lions share of the noise comes from the rotors. While tuning the exhaust to produce a sound canceling “anti sound” would help to conceal turbine whine, the WOP WOP WOP of the blades remains.
Most modern military craft use a “quieter” composite rotor in place of the aluminum skinned blades of yore. When I left the service back around '80, there was still serious research being done on sound damping rotors. Watching the new Blackhawks, I am amazed at how quiet (compared to Huey’s) they are. Of course thay still make a racket when in full downward pitch…
If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that there are experimental blade systems that are damn near silent. That we don’t see them on existing aircraft is probably telling of a lack of practicality or maybe durability. I know from personal experience that early composite blades were prone to failure.
SHHHH! you don’t know who might be reading this.
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
The usual “Black Helicopters” that conspiracy theorists talk about are not “stealth” helocopters or “silent” helicopters. They are normal military helicopters with no identifying markings on them (no flags, no registration numbers, etc.).
Until this year, the army publicly denied that they had any unmarked helicopters. Then, the army staged a couple of un-announced “urban assault” wargames in or near populated areas. (The populations there were, of course, major ticked-off at the army about this.) And the army has since admitted that, during these wargames, they used unmarked helicopters.
Now, unmarked helicopters in a wargame are a far cry from the usual paranoid stories about black helicopters descending into rural areas and abducting neo-militia survivalists. But the fact that the U.S. military has now confirmation that they have unmarked helicopters of any kind, when they’d previously denied they had anything of the sort, is surely going to add fuel to the conspiracy theorists’ fires.
Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992.
Sighting report …
I have seen several black helicopters land behind my house on a civilian airfield. They were dark, Chinooks from what I could tell. I heard they were special OPS from a nearby base. The operation I noticed was a quick cigarette & leak in the dark. Haven’t seen (or heard, they make a racket when at full pitch) them for a year or two.
Oblio
::Locking doors and hiding in attic::
I warned you. Those copters are controlled from moble centers in the trailors of unmarked semis, not even license tags.Over all command is centered in other semis with only the word FISH in relativly inconspicuos size. but all the more obvious because it is the only marking. FISH Federal Insidiously Sneaky Helicopters.
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
DammiT!!! I didn’t want that smiley there! THey’re onto me/gotta go
gota burn the house down. get lost for awhile
I will contact when I am able
<font size=7>FNORD</font>
And now I have to kill you all.(SIGH) I was SO hoping for a quiet weekend. Ah, well. A S.G.A.'s (Sinister Government Agent) work is never done.
Is an appreciation of beauty a function of the human soul?
I know this is a late reply, but I did a search before starting a new thread. ( getting slightly smarter at this)
Back in 1982, my wife and I did a motorcycle camping trip through Florida. When we left Ocala Nat. Forest heading north to Jacksonville on S.R.21, a weird thing happened. We each rode our own bikes, and there was no other traffic on this section of 2 lane deserted road. I noticed up ahead, a chopper at tree level, crossing the road about a mile ahead. In a couple of minutes, off to our immediate left, was a totally flat black chopper( looked like a Huey )with no insignias, or numbers. The scarey thing was he was pacing us at tree level, maybe 40 yards away, and the door was open, with a manned machine gun pointed at us! He continued this for about 45 seconds (seemed alot longer) and then banked off and disappeared. That is truely enough to make you soil your pants. I was flight crew in the Navy for 4 years and never saw anything like this. later, Tom
I’ve heard many reports similar to hflathead’s. People driving on deserted highways with black choppers following them for a short while. Other reports claim that the men in the choppers spray chemicals over the land doing biological warfare weapons testing on U.S. citizens.
A really good site to check out is:
http://www.parascope.com/
It should have some info on the mysterious “black helicopters.”
Really! Cool! Must have been in all the major newspapers and I missed it…Darn it! I never saw this story! Do you have a news item/mass media reference of some kind for this so I could find out more?
This sort of activity has been going on since the late 1940’s. There is a documented case about spraying an area of Minneapolis to test how fallout would move around, or so sayth the government. A number of people got sick and one school in particular had students that grew up with much higher than average instances of cancer. This was in the news including on CNN, however I have not been able to kind anything on the internet about it. I did send an email to senator Paul Wellstone’s office, as of now, I haven’t heard back.
I don’t have a link, but I did remember reading somewhere that journalists had taken photos of all-black, unmarked helicopters that had landed on the beach somewhere during Operation Urban Warrior.
I stepped across the street to have a smoke and Marine I flew by with two black attack helicopters.
“Hey! I’m off campus! Don’t shoot!”
They were of course the usual army or marine dark green, but they did appear jet black. An optical dellusion, no doubt.
Has anyone seen MC and Hunter S. Thompson at the same time?