Citroën u55 currus

Citroën u55 currus. Photos and comments. www.picautos.com

Not in production yet... I attended the unveiling of the static display a couple months back. Personally, I don't see the point - and doubt that they sell many.

Bell V-280 Valor - Bell Helicopter

A good friend of mine was a test pilot on the XV-15 in the '80's. He always thought that the materials of the day (engines, air frames, tubing, etc.) were right for the size of the XV-15 and that scaling up to the much larger V-22 was going to be very difficult.

He was right.

I would be interested to see the progress Bell has made. I was the Production Manager for the H-1Y/Z in 2002 and their composite scrap rate was horrendous.

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Boeing is selling it to the Marines, among others.

Taken last night.

At first I thought someone customized a Chrysler 300, then realized it was too different and had to be a car I've not seen before.

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I know, JP. My wife worked on the V-22 program for years, and knew all the Marines that died in flight test.

In the annals of poorly conceived ideas, the V-22 is right up there. It was supposed to replace the CH-53E. But it couldn't. So they built a new and improved CH-53, called the CH-53K, seen here:

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I have a couple hundred hours in the old model, the CH-53E. It is like flying your house from the bathroom.

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My son was flown to and from aircraft carriers a couple of times in V22's. Personally, I'd jump at the chance. Flying over the Mediterranean with the rear ramp open...that's entertainment.

Seems like it probably has less capacity than a CH-53, but the top speed in aircraft configuration would be significantly higher. Probably the tool to put a team on the ground in a more remote location sooner.

Need troops in a hurry?

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C-130 rollin' down the strip
64 Rangers on a one-way trip
Mission Top Secret, destination unknown
They don't even know if they're ever coming home
When my plane gets up so high
Paratroopers taken to the skies

Stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door
Jump right out and count to four...

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All good. It ended up taking over 20 years to get to the fleet. Bell/Boeing during those years could not have organized a two sandwich picnic. It makes the JSF look efficient:)

I would not personally fly it but I saw the sausage getting made in Amarillo.

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Going along with the more efficient/faster cruise, I believe one of the big reasons for the V-22 was that choppers didn't have enough range. I saw one account that the V-22 genesis involved the problem of choppers not having enough range to get the hostages out of Iran (couldn't get tankers close enough?) and the C-130 jato experiment failed. The V-22 would have been able to get them out in theory.

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Not really. The range of the CH-53E I flew was over 600 miles (300 NM combat radius) at 150KT cruise.

The V-22 is a fine aircraft. It simply wasn't worth the cost. And remember, the V-22 out flies all the escort helos meant to protect it.

I had a ring side seat for a long time watching this unfold.

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From the interwebz:

The Bell V-280 Valor is being developed for the United States Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.

Future Vertical Lift (FVL) is a program to develop a family of military helicopters for the United States Armed Forces. Four different sizes of aircraft are to be developed and are meant as replacements for the Army's UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache, CH-47 Chinook, and OH-58 Kiowa helicopters.

The precursor for FVL is the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) helicopter program, which will provide technology demonstrations planned for 2017. On 11 August 2014, the Army informed the Bell-Lockheed team that they had chosen the V-280 Valor to participate in the JMR demonstration program against the The Boeing-Sikorsky SB-1 Defiant was also chosen.

The V-280 is reported to be designed for a cruising speed of 280 knots with a range of 2,100 nautical miles, and an effective combat range of 500 to 800 nmi. Expected maximum takeoff weight is around 30,000 lb. (Versus 60,500 lb for the V-22)

In one major difference from the earlier V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, the engines remain in place while the rotors and drive shafts tilt. A driveshaft runs through the straight wing, allowing both prop rotors to be driven by a single engine in the event of engine loss.

Special emphasis has been placed on reducing the weight of the V-280 in comparison to the V-22, which in turn would reduce cost. To do this, composites are used extensively. Bell expects the V-280 to cost around the same as a AH-64E or MH-60M. While the Osprey has a higher disk loading and lower hover efficiency than a helicopter, the V-280 will have a lower disk loading and longer wing for greater hover and cruise efficiency.

The original plan for Operation Eagle Claw was to use six C-130 planes and eight CH-53 helicopters.
The planes were for support and cover, and the helicopters would do the actual extraction (iirc).


Operation Credible Sport was the one that involved C-JATO equipped C-130 airplanes. The demo plane crashed on landing and the operation was scrubbed.

This is how it was supposed to work:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h...IT-Landing.gif

And this is what actually happened:
https://youtu.be/WKCl3lfAx1Q

What am I looking at? 4WD, obviously. Very weird center diff, with one shaft to each wheel. Portal axles? Side pipes...?

Vemco V-drive. Full time AWD. Had a Ford E150 with the system. Front gear boxes were spools. Transfer case had two differentials inside. One to allow separate speeds for the front wheels, and one for front to back. Very stable and allowed fullsize rigs AWD capability with a low center of gravity.

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