rotorwashed Posted May 3, 2011 Posted May 3, 2011 http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-05/secret-stealth-helicopters-ferried-troops-obl-kill-operation Im not sure if I buy it, does the photo look familiar to anybody? Quote
clay Posted May 3, 2011 Posted May 3, 2011 I was just about to ask the same. figured Goldy would come up with something with his infinite knowledge haha. I am stumped as to what it is Quote
arotrhd Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 I am going to forecast Goldy's response: "Plausible Deniablity". -WATCH FOR THE PATTERNS, WATCH FOR THE WIRES- Quote
Mungo5 Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 I love some of the comments below the post... Actually...there are helicopters out there now (since at least the early 90's actually) for the US military that are 100% quiet. They just a few feet from you and you wouldn't hear them. Quote
Auto-Rotation-Nation Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) I wouldn't have bought any of this until a couple of months ago when what I believe was the CIA performed a practice raid on high rise near me (we are talking less than a block away) you can't tell me or any other rotor head that we can stand out and watch men fast-rope from a chopper just down the street that you could see and not hear AT ALL But that it exactly what I did, I don't believe that there is really anyway to tell for sure what happened over there, I originally was humored to hear one agency report that the entire extraction was done with "slightly modified UH-60 model helicopters" and that the low altitude drop was due to dust sucked back up into the turbine intakes and destroying the engine. What they didn't address was why a upgraded helo would fail from something a normal UH-60 would experience in the actual A.O. More Pictures Edited May 4, 2011 by Auto-Rotation-Nation Quote
Goldy Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 Well we all know the CIA has been making super quiet ships ever since the "highly modified" OH6's in Vietnam. And of course Whispermode has been out there since the early 80's as documented in my fav helo movie...BlueThunder. And you guys thought it was all Hollywood. Quote
RagMan Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 Wouldn't be dust induction into the engine. I flew on Uh-60s for six years in the Army with two tours to the desert (yes, both deserts.) Those engines can ingest a lot of sand before they would even consider failing. Besides, each engine has what is called an "Inlet Particle Separator" unit which essentially takes a lot of (but not all) of foreign contaminants from the intake and blows it out a separate outtake nozzle at the back of the engine. I became weary when I saw the first photo of the tail (the pic of the tail up against the wall) of said helicopter that crashed during the raid. It looks "kind of" like the tail end of an H-60, but there are certain things about it that don't look right. I've seen plenty of 160th Night Stalker blackhawk helicopters and know exactly what the tail booms and tail pylons look like (160th was the aviation unit that flew the SEALs in.) The crash site however looks comparable in size to some H-60 crash sites I've seen in the past, though I know they mentioned this one the crew blew up the aircraft upon extracting from the site of the raid. I'm not sure what is with the other phony photos of helicopter wreckage they have posted. Wouldn't surprise me though, already seen plenty of phony photos from this whole raid ordeal. I do think the raid took place though, and I do think we killed Osama. Quote
TomPPL Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 They weren't silent, read the Twitter account of someone who was actually there:https://twitter.com/#!/reallyvirtualHe's getting more famous by the minute for reporting - unknowingly - the whole event via Twitter. Quote
SBuzzkill Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) Lots of military helicopters are painted shiny silver Edited May 4, 2011 by SBuzzkill Quote
Mungo5 Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 Looks like one of these.. http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=155097 Quote
CharyouTree Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 Looks like one of these.. http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=155097 Except as far as I can tell, that picture was created yesterday afternoon in adobe photoshop CS4. If IF they decided to make a quiet blackhawk, they wouldn't have made the blades go the other way AND put the tail rotor on the other side. Unless someone can tell me of some logic that makes it matter, for quiet's sake. (I could buy the tail rotor being on the other side of the rotor system, but not just reversing the whole thing). Not to mention, the pictures don't jive up. Quote
Auto-Rotation-Nation Posted May 4, 2011 Posted May 4, 2011 An interesting comparison video I found onpopsci's website Quote
SBuzzkill Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 (edited) Ehhh we'll see.. I do see a tail rotor drive shaft in one of the pictures so that adds a bit of credibility to it. Intriguing to say the least. Edited May 5, 2011 by SBuzzkill Quote
Jason Paterson Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 Here is an article specifically about the secret helicopter on abc with video. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/top-secret-stealth-helicopter-program-revealed-osama-bin/story?id=13530693 Quote
RagMan Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 Those designs, shapes, surfaces, components look all impractical. Something isn't right with this whole situation. 1 Quote
Eggbeater Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 The pictures released show the tail rotor on the right side, just like the Blackhawk. It looks like the sides are reversed because the horizontal stabilizers are swept forward. And I don't see anything photo-shopped (whether the components themselves are real remains to be seen). Except as far as I can tell, that picture was created yesterday afternoon in adobe photoshop CS4. If IF they decided to make a quiet blackhawk, they wouldn't have made the blades go the other way AND put the tail rotor on the other side. Unless someone can tell me of some logic that makes it matter, for quiet's sake. (I could buy the tail rotor being on the other side of the rotor system, but not just reversing the whole thing). Not to mention, the pictures don't jive up. Quote
SBuzzkill Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 He was talking about that rendering Mungo posted not the actual photos. Quote
Eggbeater Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 Oops my bad, I was looking at the photos released by the news. He was talking about that rendering Mungo posted not the actual photos. Quote
CharyouTree Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 Oops my bad, I was looking at the photos released by the news. Sorry, my mistake, I don't think I quoted the original I was referring to. Quote
Boatpix Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=155097 Quote
zatara Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 This is from a wikipedia entry: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/05/army-mission-helocopter-was-secret-stealth-black-hawk-050411/ Quote
arotrhd Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 Looking more & more like a moded -60, like that's a surprise. But this could be an interesting twist, especially if it was Comanche fallout - This is my vote, tho...I might say it describes DEVGRU pretty good, 'cept you never actually get to see one. Unless it's right before they pull the trigger. -WATCH FOR THE PATTERNS, WATCH FOR THE WIRES- 2 Quote
Mungo5 Posted May 5, 2011 Posted May 5, 2011 He was talking about that rendering Mungo posted not the actual photos. Never occurred to me the picture was a knock up based on the 'evidence' so far. Quote
EC120AV8R Posted May 6, 2011 Posted May 6, 2011 Here's what the Army Times reported. http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/05/army-mission-helocopter-was-secret-stealth-black-hawk-050411/ Quote
rotorwashed Posted May 18, 2011 Author Posted May 18, 2011 "The Black Hawks were specially engineered to muffle the tail rotor and engine sound, two officials said. The added weight of the stealth technology meant cargo was calculated to the ounce, with weather factored in. The night of the mission, it was hotter than expected." http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/05/ap-raiders-knew-mission-a-one-shot-deal-051711/ Quote
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