Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!xanth!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cbnews!fiddler@Sun.COM
From: fiddler@Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Air-to-Air Helicopter Combat
Message-ID: <3416@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 24 Jan 89 02:55:34 GMT
References: <2880@cbnews.ATT.COM> <3037@cbnews.ATT.COM> <3117@cbnews.ATT.COM> <3278@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Lines: 24
Approved: military@att.att.com


In article <3278@cbnews.ATT.COM>, sheppard@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ken  Sheppardson) writes:
>   
>   The airframe of the Apache is strong enough to support the load from some
>   pretty drastic maneuvers.  I believe the Apache is the only Helicopter 
>   to ever do a loop. 

Some of the Apache's technology was developed during the late '60s
in Lockheed's Cheyenne.  (I will now prepare for the roasting as it
turns out I got the name wrong...:})

It (not the Apache) was used to prove some new ideas in rotor systems,
and demonstrated loops several times, as well as setting some
rotorcraft speed records.

I went to high school a few miles from the Pt. Mugu NAS, and remember
one afternoon seeing a Cheyenne flying arund the area.  It was *loud*,
and the sound was quite different from any other helicopter I've head
before or since.  Similar to an OH-5 (Hughes/McD-D 500), but and octave
or so lower.

A couple of French helicopters have demonstrated loops, as has at least
one of Agusta's designs.  All of them tend to be careful to maintain
positive G throughout the maneuver.