SERVING MANY INDUSTRIES—SAVING MORE THAN TIME www.nehc.org
April 2011
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear NEHC Members, March 11, 2011 is a day the world will not soon forget. As we now know, a massive earthquake centered off the coast of Japan triggered a tsunami which resulted in extensive catastrophic damage. The Japanese people are struggling to acquire water, food, and shelter while simultaneously attempting to contain radiation from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Similar to other such disasters, the world has come together to provide material and monetary aid, rescue teams and condolences to ease the burden on the Japanese people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan. Did you notice how helicopters have responded to this disaster? Within moments after the tsunami warning was broadcast, helicopters were in service, flying over coastal communities, advising residents to evacuate. Helicopters were seen rescuing people as the tsunami washed ashore. In the hours after the initial damage, helicopters were used in a number of critical roles; search and rescue, aerial survey, transporting rescue teams and basic necessities to the hardest hit areas along Japan’s east coast. Helicopters are truly amazing machines; capable of operating from remote areas in austere conditions, flying high to survey large areas, flying low and slow for close up reconnaissance, able to remain stationary in a hover to hoist stranded people to safety or to lower material and supplies when there’s no suitable landing area. If you watched the reports on national news or saw video clips posted on YouTube, it’s easy to conclude that these were all easy, routine, operations. It’s true that properly equipped helicopters flown by trained professional crew make difficult tasks look ‘easy and routine’. Those of you who have done such flying know that hoisting people off roof tops and operating in unprepared areas requires considerable concentration. And, there is nothing ‘routine’ about dropping load after load of water on a damaged nuclear reactor. Our colleagues in Japan have done a tremendous job using their helicopters to help their countrymen in the aftermath of Japan’s greatest natural disaster. Every helicopter pilot knows that helicopters are relatively low-speed machines. Without getting technical, forward speed is limited by blade stall on the retreating side of the rotor system and the effects of compressibility of the advancing blade. Engineers have made a number of incremental advancements to allow helicopters to fly faster. The ‘holy grail’ for helicopter designers is to create a design that retains the helicopter’s most desirable feature, that is its ability to hover, and then be able to ‘dash’ from point to point at high speed. The helicopter industry has probably already started analyzing the helicopter’s role in response to the tsunami in Japan. This study should provide useful data to justify the ongoing development of faster helicopters. One of the 1st generation, high speed helicopters was the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne. The Cheyenne was developed over 44 years ago and attempted to satisfy the military’s requirement for a high speed attack helicopter. Since then a number of advancements have made high speed helicopter flight a reality. Bell-Boeing’s V-22 Osprey is now in service with the US military. The Osprey is a tilt-rotor; for takeoff and landing it typically operates as a helicopter with the engine nacelles vertical and rotors horizontal. Once airborne, the nacelles rotate forward 90° for horizontal flight, converting the V-22 to a more fuel-efficient, higher-speed turboprop airplane. Bell and Agusta have entered into a joint venture to bring a civil tilt-rotor, the BA-609, to the marketplace. Other manufacturers are taking different approaches to create composite, high speed helicopters. Piasecki Helicopter Company has designed and flown a derivative of the UH-60 Blackhawk, the SpeedHawk. In this edition of the newsletter, you will also read an article that describes Eurocopter’s high speed prototype, the X3,Hybrid Helicopter. Speaking of fast helicopters, please join us for our spring membership meeting to learn about Sikorsky’s success with their X2 TECHNOLOGY™ demonstrator program. Several years ago Sikorsky initiated a development program to achieve high speed helicopter flight by creating a counter-rotating coaxial-rotor design, for low speed flight and handling, coupled with a pusher propeller to provide the thrust needed for high cruise speed. The X2 has successfully flown at 250 knots! We plan to start the evening with a short business meeting followed immediately by the feature presentation. Please join us at the Tewksbury Country Club on April 13. It promises to be a great night and you won’t want to miss it!
W. Gregory Harville President
Sikorsky X2 Technology Demonstrator™ On exhibit at Heli-Expo 2011. Picture courtesy of Wes Verkaart