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Some Pics from Army Flight Test...


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I don't know about Ramon, but when I went to school at Ft. Eustis, one of the helicopters in the school maintenance hangars was the one in the top pics.

At least as far as I remember. 1985 was a long time ago!

Tim

I was at fort Eustis from November 93 - February 94 and I don't remember then having any of the prototype birds anymore. Then again, I don't remember much anymore anyways. Too many jp8 fumes have pickled my brain cells!

;-)

-Ramon

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You all had the cool toys. All the helicopter piece trainers made your maintenance tasks, I'm sure more easier.

All of our maintenance tasks were done on the A/C itself, boy was that fun.

We took one of our birds outside the hangar one day and our instructor fired up the APU. You should have seen all the junk come flying out of the exhaust tube!

Pretty funny actually!

Tim

Edited by hawkwrench
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You all had the cool toys. All the helicopter piece trainers made your maintenance tasks, I'm sure more easier.

All of our maintenance tasks were done on the A/C itself, boy was that fun.

We took one of our birds outside the hangar one day and our instructor fired up the APU. You should have seen all the junk come flying out of the exhaust tube!

Pretty funny actually!

Tim

I remember doing a lot of the maintenance training on the birds themselves. most of them were old airframes with the straight pipes exhaust, but not sure how old exactly. i think there was one HIRSS bird. I also remember thinking that climbing all over that Black Hawk was like climbing on the best jungle gym in the world!

-Ramon

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  • 1 year later...

Well it looks like April 2016 was the last post made here and far be it from me to revive a thread. :thumbsup:

 

I was looking for information on some things I had squirreled away. The first two were taken on Redstone Arsenal back in tthe MICOM days and these 8x10s have 1964 dates on them. Obviously the system was a No Go at this station but any details would be nice to know. An interesting aspect about this UH-1B is it's tail number 2555 which I believe later became one of the NUH-1B TOW ships.

34669275956_739a30c0c7_b.jpg

 

34709456235_f817347b33_b.jpg

 

Here is another system I've never been able to get details on being tested on what is likely an OH-58A judging by the fashion plates present. Another system I'd love to know more about if anyone has the skinny.

33900076813_fde27481d2_b.jpg

 

33867398174_048ff7ca55_b.jpg

 

Much obliged

 

Edited by snake36bravo
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Lloyd,

 Great photos of 62-12555!  62-12553 and 62-12554 were the XM26 TOW armed NUH-1Bs, but it's still an interesting aircraft.   I feel like i have seen this 10 shot pod somewhere, but I can't recall exactly where right now.  Did you notice the manual cranks for, I assume, changing the elevation of the pod.  Also the mount is not a typical M156 universal mount as far as I can see.  It looks a lot like a mount for  auxiliary fuel pods that has been adapted to this project.  I have no idea what is on the 58.

    Ray

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26 minutes ago, hawkwrench said:

Ray, What ever happened to EDW Matt?

Is everything alright with him? He never posts anymore?

 

Tim

Tim,

  I e-mailed Matt a while back and he was doing OK, but I think I need to ping him again.  

      Ray

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5 hours ago, rotorwash said:

Lloyd,

 Great photos of 62-12555!  62-12553 and 62-12554 were the XM26 TOW armed NUH-1Bs, but it's still an interesting aircraft.   I feel like i have seen this 10 shot pod somewhere, but I can't recall exactly where right now.  Did you notice the manual cranks for, I assume, changing the elevation of the pod.  Also the mount is not a typical M156 universal mount as far as I can see.  It looks a lot like a mount for  auxiliary fuel pods that has been adapted to this project.  I have no idea what is on the 58.

    Ray

 

Ray thanks for the correction on the TOW s/n. I did notice the traverse and elevation wheels on this unidentified system. I'm thinking they were likely just to boresight otherwise completely impractical. Not a very optimal design although the tubes are definitely for the larger rockets than the 2.75" FFAR. The mounting arm itself or something similar looks to have been used by at least on one gunship with the Gunslingers of the 128th AHC in Vietnam. I've not seen it employed outside of this unit. 

 

34335129410_8e0b29b12f_b.jpg

 

I guess that system on the 58 will remain a mystery. I've always thought it might be an acoustic ballistic sensor of some kind. My best SWAG at it. Thanks again.

 

Edited by snake36bravo
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48 minutes ago, snake36bravo said:

 

Ray thanks for the correction on the TOW s/n. I did notice the traverse and elevation wheels on this unidentified system. I'm thinking they were likely just to boresight otherwise completely impractical. Not a very optimal design although the tubes are definitely for the larger rockets than the 2.75" FFAR. The mounting arm itself or something similar looks to have been used by at least on one gunship with the Gunslingers of the 128th AHC in Vietnam. I've not seen it employed outside of this unit. 

 

34335129410_8e0b29b12f_b.jpg

 

I guess that system on the 58 will remain a mystery. I've always thought it might be an acoustic ballistic sensor of some kind. My best SWAG at it. Thanks again.

 

Here's a UH-1B with the same mount for the aux tanks like I mentioned above.  That 128th UH-1C is unique for sure!

   Ray

 

Image may contain: sky, ocean, outdoor and water

 

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Glad to see this thread revised!  Hope EDWMatt is ok, he hasn't been around in a couple of years.   If anyone has pics of Littlebirds with early FLIR mounts, post away.   Will help a lot with an ongoing project.  No idea if the 160th used regular army testing facilities or did it in-house but I figured I'd ask.   

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9 hours ago, snake36bravo said:

 

Ray thanks for the correction on the TOW s/n. I did notice the traverse and elevation wheels on this unidentified system. I'm thinking they were likely just to boresight otherwise completely impractical. Not a very optimal design although the tubes are definitely for the larger rockets than the 2.75" FFAR. The mounting arm itself or something similar looks to have been used by at least on one gunship with the Gunslingers of the 128th AHC in Vietnam. I've not seen it employed outside of this unit. 

 

34335129410_8e0b29b12f_b.jpg

 

I guess that system on the 58 will remain a mystery. I've always thought it might be an acoustic ballistic sensor of some kind. My best SWAG at it. Thanks again.

 

 

These racks are commonly referred to as the "Kellet Pylon" or "Kellet Rack" and are most commonly associated with the auxiliary fuel tanks as already mentioned. However, the Kellet Pylon only referred to the actual bomb rack attached to what was called the "Bell Antler" mount - like the MA-4 rack inside the M156 universal mount. The antlers were also used on the XM47 and M56 mine dispensing subsystems. The combination of two antler-based mounts each with a 19-shot rocket pod as seen above was officially known as the XM17 armament subsystem, but I don't know how much that nomenclature was actually used.

34565646902_e96b717690_b.jpg

Edited by thatguy96
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On 5/17/2017 at 10:26 PM, thatguy96 said:

 

These racks are commonly referred to as the "Kellet Pylon" or "Kellet Rack" and are most commonly associated with the auxiliary fuel tanks as already mentioned. However, the Kellet Pylon only referred to the actual bomb rack attached to what was called the "Bell Antler" mount - like the MA-4 rack inside the M156 universal mount. The antlers were also used on the XM47 and M56 mine dispensing subsystems. The combination of two antler-based mounts each with a 19-shot rocket pod as seen above was officially known as the XM17 armament subsystem, but I don't know how much that nomenclature was actually used.

 

 

Thank for the nomenclature and full explanation. Finally, finally can put a name to this one.

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On 5/17/2017 at 10:26 PM, thatguy96 said:

 

These racks are commonly referred to as the "Kellet Pylon" or "Kellet Rack" and are most commonly associated with the auxiliary fuel tanks as already mentioned. However, the Kellet Pylon only referred to the actual bomb rack attached to what was called the "Bell Antler" mount - like the MA-4 rack inside the M156 universal mount. The antlers were also used on the XM47 and M56 mine dispensing subsystems. The combination of two antler-based mounts each with a 19-shot rocket pod as seen above was officially known as the XM17 armament subsystem, but I don't know how much that nomenclature was actually used.

 

I knew you would have the info, Joseph. Thanks,

       Ray

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On 5/17/2017 at 8:38 AM, hawkwrench said:

Ray, What ever happened to EDW Matt?

Is everything alright with him? He never posts anymore?

 

Tim

Tim,

  I heard back from Matt.  He is doing fine.  Hopefully, he will drop by and show off some of the cool helos he has been building.

    Ray

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On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 10:10 AM, rotorwash said:

Tim,

  I heard back from Matt.  He is doing fine.  Hopefully, he will drop by and show off some of the cool helos he has been building.

    Ray

 

Glad he is doing well.  I gotta admit, this is one of the neatest threads to me.  I really love all the other reference threads, but, this one is so unique.

Looking forward to his return if he gets a minute or three.

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On 5/17/2017 at 1:22 AM, snake36bravo said:

Sorry forgot this one. Nice boots.

34669523356_46920fff4e_b.jpg

 

 

Thought it best to not leave everyone hanging. After 4 years of searching for answers Bill Church and Rob Purder and one of the pilots of this program provided me with the following. " I just got in touch with one of the guys in the photos, and it is a Gyro-stabilized Telescope which swings down below the skids after takeoff. They then had 360 joystick control to look around (similar to the MMS on the 58D). It was supposed to do target work with the Cobra TOW in RVN, but they cxld the project for financial reasons in 72. The dish is an early radar altimeter which would retract the telescope back above the skids when you approached the ground. It was called Eye Star, and functioned well. Still getting further details from Tommy Boucher. "

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12 minutes ago, snake36bravo said:

 

Thought it best to not leave everyone hanging. After 4 years of searching for answers Bill Church and Rob Purder and one of the pilots of this program provided me with the following. " I just got in touch with one of the guys in the photos, and it is a Gyro-stabilized Telescope which swings down below the skids after takeoff. They then had 360 joystick control to look around (similar to the MMS on the 58D). It was supposed to do target work with the Cobra TOW in RVN, but they cxld the project for financial reasons in 72. The dish is an early radar altimeter which would retract the telescope back above the skids when you approached the ground. It was called Eye Star, and functioned well. Still getting further details from Tommy Boucher. "

Now that is too cool and right in your wheelhouse, Lloyd!

    Ray

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2 hours ago, snake36bravo said:

 

Thought it best to not leave everyone hanging. After 4 years of searching for answers Bill Church and Rob Purder and one of the pilots of this program provided me with the following. " I just got in touch with one of the guys in the photos, and it is a Gyro-stabilized Telescope which swings down below the skids after takeoff. They then had 360 joystick control to look around (similar to the MMS on the 58D). It was supposed to do target work with the Cobra TOW in RVN, but they cxld the project for financial reasons in 72. The dish is an early radar altimeter which would retract the telescope back above the skids when you approached the ground. It was called Eye Star, and functioned well. Still getting further details from Tommy Boucher. "

 

Interestingly this guy in Nomex has a 194th Armored Brigade patch.  They were a test unit at Ft. Ord (where I bet the photos were taken) before going to Ft. Knox.

 

John Hairell

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On 5/17/2017 at 1:22 AM, snake36bravo said:

Sorry forgot this one. Nice boots.

34669523356_46920fff4e_b.jpg

 

Horrible silvering on those door decals.  Obviously forgot to shoot a gloss coat before applying the decals.    Rookie mistake. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's a long shot, but just wondering if anyone has any cockpit/cabin photos of UH-1H 69-15532 (mentioned a few times earlier in this thread)?

 

Also, did she keep the T800 (and USBP livery) up to her retirement in 2000?

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