16-06-2009, 09:10
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עמוס דור,מומחה ומתעד של חיל האוויר הישראלי
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חבר מתאריך: 20.07.05
הודעות: 3,225
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The XH-17 was a very limited flight-- test program to investigate the feasibility of using an experimental pressure-jet power system to provide adequate lift to carry an armored tank. Three months of extensive ground rotation tests were accomplished with air power as well as with the eight tip burners activated. Thirty-three short flights were completed, accumulating a total of 10 hours, which included hovering and forward flight up to 70mph. Most flights were at 44,000 pounds gross weight. An Air Force radio van was attached to the helicopter and lifted off the ground to prove that the XH-17 could hover at 50,000 pounds gross weight. My copilot, Sid Hill, and I were grunting right along with the whirlybird, literally "willing" it off the ground.
The success of these flights encouraged the military enough to present the Hughes Tool Co. with a contract to build a wooden mockup of a prototype XH-28, which was proposed to carry an Army tank. The XH-28 was designed to fly at 120,000 pounds max gross weight. It had four blades instead of two and possibly two jet engines on each side to drive compressors. This would definitely be an improvement in providing air to the blade tips. In 1956, the XH-28 mockup was completed, but the Korean War had ended, and the XH-28 helicopter program was canceled, along with many other military programs. For many months, the XH-17 was relegated to a concrete pad west of flight operations. There was some talk about giving it to the Smithsonian, and an aviation museum in Upland, California, wanted me to fly it there. This couldn't be done because the damaged rotor blade had already exceeded its 50hour life limit. The XH-17 was eventually stripped of all salvageable components and then demolished. That was the ignoble end of the monster whirlybird-a helicopter before its time.
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