Helikoptery Wojskowe 1974 - 1982

MICHAŁ

M. MIETEL5KI

HELIKOPTERY WOJSKOWE

1974

1982

MIL Mi 24 WESTLAND LYNX SIKORSKY S 70 HAWK HUGHES AH-64 APACHE KRAKÓW 1994

HELIKOPTERY WOJSKOWE 1974-1982

ŚMIGŁOWCE WOJSKOWE 1974-1982

WesUand Lynx Mk 7 w barwach brytyjskiej Anny Air Corps podczas ćwiczeń. Śmiglowce na pierwszym planie wystrzeliwują przeciwpancerne pociski HOT. Tbe Anny Lynx Mk 7 fonnatiou is launching a salvo ofHOT 1lJł-tank missiles. (fol Blandford)

Opisane w niniejszym opracowaniu najpopularniejsze . helikoptery wojskowe lat 80-tych powstały w oparciu o doświadczenia kouIliktu wietnamskiego i wojen na Bliskim Wschodzie z ubiegłej dekady. Wprawdzie "odhijający" wyraźnie od pozostałych amerykański AR-M Apache może być jllŹ uważany za przedstawiciela nowego pokolenia helikopterów lat 9O-tych, ale starsze od niego konstrukcyjnie francuskie AS-350 i AS-365 dopiero dziś, wobec zakoń=nia produkcji Gazelle i Lyrrxa, zaczynają zdobywać wojskowe rynki, toteż do=kają się - być może - omówienia dopiero razem z ostatnimi konstrukcjami xx wiekn, jak Ka-50, EH-IOI czy Tigre. Tak więc mamy tu cztery lllpełnie różue maszyny, których prototypy oblatano po 1970 L, produkcję seryjną rozpoczętu po 1973 r., a przed 1988 r. ponad 300 sztuk każdego z tych typów znajdowało się na uzbrojeniu sił zbrojnych różnych krajów świata. Można dziś się spierać, kogo uznać za "ojca" helikoptera. Przysłowie głosi, że każdy sukces ma wielu ojców, jedynie klęski są sierotami. Z pewnością rzecz działa się w 1907 r. we Francji, a twórcami pierwszych śmigłowych pionowzlotów byli Paul Comu i Lonis Breguet. W maju 1924 r. Etienne Oełunichen z zakładów Peugeot na helikopterze własnej konstrukcji jako pierwszy przelecial milę w linii prostej, kilometr w obwodzie zamkniętym i utrzymał się w powietr1ll przez 14 minut. Helikopter Gyrop/ane Labora/oire Bregueta w latach 1935-36 ustanowił rekordy: prędkość - 98 kmIh, wysokość 158 In, odległość - 44 km i długotrwałość lotu - 62 minuty. W latach 1937-39 dwuwimikowy Focke-WuIf Fw 61 osiągnął odpowiednio: 123 kmlh, 3427 In, 230 km i 130 minul. Pod koniec wojny prototypowe śmigłowce w Niem=ch, Francji, ZSRS i USA osiągały jllŹ prędkoŚĆ 180 kmlh, pulap 7000 In, zasięg 350 km i długotrwałość

lotu do pięciu godzin. Bez wątpienia natomiast za twórcę przemysłu śmigłowcowegouznać musimy Igora Sikorsky'ego. To jego V8--316 z 1943 r. ukształtował charakterystyczny, uznany odtąd za klasyczny, nldad z jednym wirnikiem głównym i pomocniczym śmigłem ogonowym, przeciwdzialającym momentowi obrotowemu. Wyprodukowany w ilości niemal 500 sztuk w wersjach R-4 i R-{j zapisal się w historii jako pierwszy helikopter ewakuujący rannych z niedostępnych terenów birmańskiej dżungli, będąc zarazem pierwszym typem śmigłowca na wypo53żeniu USAAF, US Navy, RAF i F/ee/Air Arm. Przyjmojąc więc rok 1944 za początek "ery śmigłowcowej" wyróżnić możemy etapy rozwoju tego nr dzaju statków powietrznych. Pierwszy z nich ołx
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MILITARY HELICOPTERS 1974-1982 This volume descn1>es the world's main military helicopters developed during the 80s, employing the experience gained during the Vietnam and Middle East wars of the previous decade. Although an American AH~4 Apache is sometimes considered for being the very first of the 90s generation of helicopters, several earlier designs, like French AS-350 and AS-365, are not so widely adopted yet, and their military sales are expected to rise when Gazelle and Lynx disappeared from the market. In such circumstances they will be covered in a still separate volume containing the last rotor craft of the XXth Century, like Kamov Hokum, EH-101 and Tigre. You will find here four totally different designs, born after 1970, put into production after 1973 and exceeding the military sales level of at least 300 vehicles each before 1988. We can easily argue trying to determine the real "father" of the helicopter - every success has a lot of them (leaving the breakdowns orphaned, as the proveIb says). Surely 1907 was the year and France was the country, where Paul Cornu and Louis Breguet made - independently of each other - the first flyable VTOL rotor--{\riven manned aircraft. In May of 1924 Etienne Oehmichen of Peugeot car company, using the helicopter he made, became the first to fly more than a mile straight on and a closed-drcuit kilometre, managing to remain airhorne for 14 minutes. During 1935-36 several world records were set up with Breguet Gyrop/ane Loboratoire, including speed of 61 mph, height of 520 ft, closed--<:ircuit distance of 27 miles and endurance of 62 minutes. Two years later the twin-rotor Focke-WulfFw 61 established following new records: speed of 76 mph, altitude of 11.240 ft, straight line distance of 143 miles and endurance of 130 minutes. In the closing stages of World War IT several helicopter prototypes in Germany, France, Rnssia and the USA bettered all the achievements mentioned above up to the levels of 110 mph, 23.000 ft, 220 miles and 5 hours respectively. There is no doubt, however, that the helicopter industry was started by Igor Sikorsky. The VS-316 he designed in 1943 became the first one using the layout called "orthodox" today - incorporating single main rotor and a small one in the extreme tail, counteracting the torque with its sidewayS-
Up to the end of the 50s the piston engine was the right powerplant, although the very first tuIbine-powered "choppers" appeared in every size category. They were the French Djinn among the lightest, the A/ouetle and the Kaman H-43 as the light ones, the Bell H-I and Sikorsky H-52 between the "lower-mediums" and the Vertol H-46 as the first gas--tuIbined heavylifter. But this was not the new propulsion system, what made the helicopter progress these years - the increase of size and carrying capabilities was the thing. The first "upper-mediums" introduced in 1953-54 in the USA (Sikorsky H-34, Vertol H-21) and Russia (Mi-4) became dwarfed in just two years by first rea1Iy "heavies" in form of Sikorsky H-37, Bell HSlr-1 and Soviet Yak-24, followed by the twin-tuIboshaft H-46 mentioned above. Few piston~ngined light helicopters of the 50s included the British Skeeter, the Soviet co-axial Ka-15118 and the Hughes 269 plus the civil Brant/y from the USA During the early 60s the tuIboshaft became the "mandatory" helicopter engine - no matter its size and country of origin. Only the lightest civil Soviet Ka-26 and American Enstrom appeared as powered by piston engines. All other "featherweights" (US OH-4, OH-5 and OH~), the light Scout from Britain and similar Mi-2 made in Poland (Soviet-designed, however), "medium-lifters" like the American Kaman H-2, Sikorsky H-3 and the Soviet Ka-25, heavylift French Super-Fre/on, British Be/vedere and Mi-8 from the USSR, as well as the "superheavies" in form of the Soviet Mi~, Mi-IO, American H-53 and H-54 by Sikorsky, plus H-47 by Vertol - all of them utilized modem tuIboshaft engines. In the late 60s there appeared 2nd generation of the European tuIboshaft helicopters. Three of them - the light SA 341 and Bo 105 as well as the medium lift SA 330 - became great success. Three other very light helicopters of that period, namely the British Cierva LTH-l, the Italian Si/vercraft SH-4 and Agusta A-106 (the last one being the only tuIbine-powered of the trio), were not purchased by military users in numbers exceeding fifty of each type, which makes them just oddities. Almost the same could be said about several of the helicopters first flown during the 70s and early 80s - the period covered by this volume. Only few of the light ones (Italian Agusta A-109, French AS-350 and American Bell 222) and "lower-mediums" (Aerospatiale AS-365, MBB BK-1l7, Sikorsky H-76 and the W-3 Sokol from Poland) have been so far adopted for military use. It took them a really long time, and now - after some 15 years of deliveries - only two named French designs have exceeded the (not very high indeed) sales mark of 150 within the military operators. Each of the four helicopter types described herewith differs from another, which made the room on the market for all of them. Both Lynx and the S-70 were designed to replace (although using different ways) the world's most widespread "chopper" - the Bell Huey, which already

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