Defense Review - Latest Comments in Piasecki X-49A Speeedhawk Compound Helicopter: 250-mph Black Hawk?

Re: Piasecki X-49A Speeedhawk Compound Helicopter: 250-mph Black Hawk?

Futuredefense — Mon, 09 May 2011 02:21:07 -0000

The number #1 threat is mark-I eyeball aimed small arms and air burst RPGs; speed can drastically reduce aiming time; this applies to radar-guided cannon, too by terrain masking that is best exploited by fleeting targets not hover under the treetops and ask for everything to kill the attack helicopter.

Re: Piasecki X-49A Speeedhawk Compound Helicopter: 250-mph Black Hawk?

Maximilien — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:07:31 -0000

Brussels 26 Dec 09 18.54hrs local time
The X-49 project appears to be interesting if not promising but apparently made no progress since its first flights in 2007. But it was a hybrid engine and/or souped-up UH-60 Black Hawk, not a new autogiro per se, nor a helicopter.
May I come back to the Fairey Rotodyne which made regular flights between the centre of London to Paris and Brussels to land in the midst of these cities; but in 1957 !. It was a good system, in fact prefiguring what we consider as the ill-fated Osprey (but a bonanza for Boeing). The Rotodyne was based to some extent on the same power translation, in a more clever way. Today, this same type of autogiro (or any other suitable name) could be considerably improved. More powerful engines, new blades ( carbon and aerodynamically tipped), composite material etc. Why was it ignored ?
With my bst regards
Maxim

Re: Piasecki X-49A Speeedhawk Compound Helicopter: 250-mph Black Hawk?

CharlesA222 — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:00:10 -0000

Cheyenne was cancelled because the tactics developed around it's speed would have put it directly into the kill envelopes of the Soviet mobile air defense systems that were then coming online. High-speed diving attacks are not a good idea when there's radar-guided machine cannon aiming up at you.