Rotor Torque

Flying in from the USS America amphibious assault ship while it was off the east coast of Oahu, an MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor conducted six deck landings on July 12, the first time a V-22 has landed onboard an Australian LHD.
(MV-22s have operated off and embarked on the sistership to HMAS Canberra and Adelaide, the Spanish Navy’s Juan Carlos I, over the past year.
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Next aboard, on July 17, was a USMC CH-53E Super Stallion from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463, becoming the largest helicopter type to land aboard an Australian LHD.

The final phase of the exercise saw a UH-1Y Venom and AH-1W SuperCobra operate across Canberra’s deck during a freeplay session on July 29, with both types making multiple landings and being secured to the deck.

The V-22 landings came as it was announced further foreign sales of the Osprey were being encouraged via a concept to allow new customers to share support, training and other services to save on costs.

First R44 Cadets land at Bankstown

Two production R44 Cadet helicopters were delivered to Bankstown Airport’s Heliflite in early August with the local Robinson Helicopter distributor becoming the first in the world to take delivery of the new two-seat training and utility helicopter.

Heliflite, a long-time Robinson dealer which also brought the first R22, R44 and R66 types into Australia, has sold the first of the Cadets, serial number 30002, to GBR Helicopters in Cairns for flight training, and says there is plenty of customer interest in the second machine.

“Robinson felt the Cadet would be a niche training machine, but for Australia, we are also seeing an interest in it from the cattle mustering industry and mining support services,” said Heliflite’s Scott Edmonds.

“The cattle industry market has rebounded with higher beef prices and we see the Cadet as an upgrade from the R22 as a true utility helicopter with its extra speed, more power and ability to carry some cargo.
Property owners will be able to travel faster between their properties than they currently can in their R22s at about 110kt – that is similar in speed to the R44 Raven I.
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The R44 Cadet received FAA certification on May 6.

Lockheed Martin hands over RAN’s final Romeo

Lockheed Martin handed over the 24th and final MH-60R Seahawk for the Royal Australian Navy on July 27.

Seahawk ‘Romeo’ N48-024 was delivered to the US Navy, which is managing the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) acquisition for the RAN, during an official ceremony at Lockheed Martin’s Owego, New York facility attended by officials from the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the RAN and the Australian Embassy, as well as representatives from Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin.

“In late 2010, the Australian Government had not yet made a decision to acquire the Romeo, and yet here we are in mid-2016 accepting the 24th, and final, aircraft,” said Commodore Scott Lockey, Director General Navy Aviation Systems.
“The Royal Australian Navy has formed the first three embarked flights, conducted the first Hellfire missile shoot and conducted a highly successful ‘DIPEX’ against a Collins class submarine.

Delivered on budget and ahead of schedule, N48-024’s formal delivery concludes the first MH-60R international sale.

The ADF selected the Romeo as its multi-role naval combat helicopter in June 2011 and saw its first MH-60R Seahawk roll off a RAAF C-17 on delivery to HMAS Albatross, Nowra in mid-October 2014.

“None of this would have been possible without the professional work conducted by everyone at Lockheed Martin involved in the Romeo program,” CAPT Lockey said.
“The work done here at Owego has been of the highest quality and directly contributed to the most successful helicopter acquisition program undertaken by the Australian Defence Force.
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N48-024 was expected to be delivered to Nowra during August.

Taipans lifting the load

A RAN MRH 90 Taipan from 808 Squadron embarked on HMAS Canberra conducted the type’s first vertical replenishment (VERTREP) of a US Navy warship on July 21 while off the coast of Hawaii during RIMPAC 2016.

The VERTREP from the underway replenishment oiler USNS Rappahannock to the amphibious transport ship USS San Diego was the largest ever carried out by an ADF maritime support helicopter and involved transferring 28 pallets.

In total the MRH 90 and two US Navy MH-60S Seawhawks transferred more than 100 pallets between the ships.

“We’ve moved more than 30 tonnes of cargo between large ships with a lot of other aircraft in the area,” flight commander, LCDR Dom Cooper, told Navy News.
“With increasing wind and swell it put our core skills to the test in some challenging but very enjoyable flying.
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While the VERTREP was in progress HMAS Canberra also received two US Army UH-60 Black Hawks.

RIMPAC was the first major international engagement for Navy’s LHD, MH-60R Seahawk and MRH-90 helicopters.

Bell 525 Relentless crash investigated

The US’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is analysing flight test telemetry to assist the investigation into the inflight disintegration of Bell Helicopter’s 525 Relentless prototype.

The 525 prototype, N525TA, was transmitting telemetry back to Bell’s Xworx research facility at Arlington Municipal Airport, Texas when it crashed on July 6 killing experimental test pilots Jason Grogan and Erik Boyce, both former US Marine Corps aviators.

Pieces of the main rotor blades and a large section of the helicopter’s tailboom were found around 400m away from the main burnt out wreckage in a field around 30nm south-east of the facility.

The NTSB said its investigators had also retrieved a flight test recorder from the wreckage which it described as being in “good condition”.
However, it was yet to confirm if investigators were successful in retrieving usable data from the device.

Two Bell chase pilots in a Bell 429 who were flying in company with the 525 when the accident occurred have been interviewed.

While ground-based testing and certification work of the 525 continues, Bell said it has indefinitely delayed the certification and first deliveries of the helicopter.
“We’ve suspended flight test activities on the program until we determine the cause of the accident,” said Scott Donnelly, chief executive of Bell parent company Textron.
“We do remain committed to the 525 program and will work to ensure the aircraft will be a safe, reliable and high-performance helicopter.
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The NTSB is due to release its preliminary report into the accident in the coming weeks.

H160 aerodynamic design validated

Airbus Helicopters has validated the aero-mechanical configuration of its H160, allowing it to confirm some key aspects of the new twin-engine helicopter’s design and performance.
Two prototypes have now accumulated more than 200 hours of flight testing from the company’s facility in Marignane, France, with the type’s flight envelope now fully opened.

Airbus Helicopters says the H160 has demonstrated exceptionally low vibration and aircraft stability levels.

“Vibration levels have been a key objective since the launch of the program and observed results give us confidence the H160 will set new comfort standards for all mission segments,” said the H160 program senior vice-president Bernard Fujarski.
“With the achievement of this formal program milestone, we have been able to confirm several key design assumptions and even exceed some of them against a real-life environment.
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The H160 program’s next focus is hot weather trials and the continued performance testing of its Safran Arrano A1 1,300shp (956kW) engines, which now equip both prototypes.
Cold weather testing will begin later this year, while a third H160 prototype will join the flight test program in early 2017 to support the certification process.

Landing on a wing and a pallet

A US search and rescue Bell 205 (UH-1H) made a safe landing by coming to rest on a stack of shipping pallets after it was badly damaged during a mission on July 17.

Washington state’s King County Sheriff Bell 205, callsigned ‘Guardian 2’, had been attempting to land several rescuers high on a mountain in the search for a missing hiker when its fuselage and left-hand skid collided heavily with a rock outcrop.

The 205 flew to Yakima Airport south-east of Seattle, the nearest airport with a full-time aviation rescue firefighting service, where the remaining rescuers and aircrew climbed down from the helicopter as it hovered just above the ground.

With its left skid dangling from the fuselage, aviation firefighters stacked shipping pallets to compensate for the broken skid.
With marshalling assistance, the pilot was able to position and settle the helicopter on the pallets, saving himself from potential injury and the helicopter from colliding further with terrain.

The cause of the collision with the outcrop is currently under investigation by the NTSB.

Briefs

-Sikorsky has opened a forward stocking location in Brisbane at the Sikorsky Helitech facility.

-CHC Helicopter has received permission from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas to reject leases on an initial 65 of its helicopters as the company works through its planned Chapter 11 financial restructuring.
The company intends to cut 99 helicopters from its fleet, most of which are either H225s or AS332s, comprising 86 leased and 13 financed aircraft.

-Leonardo’s first AW609 prototype has made its first flight in helicopter and aeroplane modes since the fatal crash of the tiltrotor’s second prototype on October 20, 2015.
A third prototype was due to be relocated to the US from Italy by the end of August to recommence flight testing activities.
The manufacturer also is assembling a fourth flight test aircraft at its facility in Philadelphia, with plans for it to enter flight testing next year.

-Turkish Aerospace Industries has begun building the first prototype of its 5-6 tonne Ozgun twin-engine utility helicopter.
Designed as a replacement for the Turkish army and air force’s ageing Bell UH-1 fleets, the prototype is not due to fly until 2018.

-Lockheed Martin has completed the critical design review of the VH-92A presidential helicopter replacement, allowing the program to proceed to assembly, test and evaluation.
Two engineering development helicopters are being modified into VH-92A configuration at Sikorsky’s Stratford, Connecticut facility. First flight is planned for 2017.