The Airplane Geeks Aircraft of the Week: The Sikorsky S-61L/N/T

The S-61 is the Civilian version of Sikorsky’s very successful Sea King franchise of helicopters.  Fifty years ago on December 6, 1960. the S-61L first flew. The S-61 received FAA certification on November 2, 1961.   Inserting a 4 foot 3 in plug just under the intakes stretched the S-61. This made the S-61able to carry up to 30 passengers.  The S-61L also featured a modified landing gear with out the amphibious sponsons. Los Angles Airways purchased the first three to replace S-55s. They were used to fly a 15 minute route from LAX to Disneyland direct. Disneyland  at the time had it’s own heliport behind Tomorrow Land. http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_OrangeCo_NW.htm

Following the S-61L, was the S-61N.   The “N” returned the 61 back to it nautical ways.  The Float sponsons and a watertight hull were again added to the airframe.  The “N” first flew on August 7^th 1962. This would be the definitive version of the civilian sea king.  With the majority of them being used to support offshore Drilling.  The additional weight of the floatation gear reduced the passenger load to 28 people.  

Both the L & N would eventually be equipped with all weather radar, located in a thimble radome on the nose.   On October 6^th 1964 the FAA made the variant the first helicopters certified for instrument fight ratings.

In order to improve its lifting capabilities Carson Helicopters of Perkasie Pennsylvania, in effect removed the “Plug” from the airframe and reduced its size back to standard military Sea King.  This became known as the S-61 Shortsky. This gave the helicopter an additional 1000 pound sling capacity over original 10,000 pounds.   Carson would also create the “CARSON BLADE” a carbon fiber blade to replace the original steal blades.   These blades have been fitted to Sea Kings worldwide.  The VH-3s used by POTUS and Westland Commandos used by the RAF in Afghanistan.

On June 9^th 1980 Sikorsky delivered the last of 136 S-61s. However that is not the end of the story, seems life gets better after 50. If you don’t believe me ask a BUFF or 130.  The U.S. State Department has recently ordered 110 S-61T or Tritons.  The S-61T is a blend of Sikorsky and Carson’s technologies.  It will have both composite Main and Tail rotors and a state of the art Glass Cockpit.  According to Carson just the tail rotors weight savings will provide and additional lifting capacity of 300Lbs.  S-61T will be used as a transport for State department officials, to avoid having to lease helicopters.

Works Cited

Adcock, Al. H-3 Sea King in Action. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1995. 58. Print.

"Sikorsky S-61." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-61>.

The Airplane Geeks Aircraft of the Week: O2U Corsair:

Before the Corsair and then the Corsair II was the  O2U-1 Corsair.   A naval Scout  Observation aircraft built by Vought Aircraft. The Navy issued specifications for a Scout aircraft that could have fixed gear, floats or be an amphibian.  

But first a digression on U.S. Naval Designations.  The first Letter designated its mission Observation the second Number showed it was the second aircraft of built by the third Letter “U” which stood for Vought. The Dash number was the variant.  So shouldn’t have the aircraft been called the O2V-2? Nope V was for Vega or the Vega Burbank Division of Lockheed.  So where do we get “U” The “U” stood for United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. When Vought went back to being Chance Vought the Department of the Navy kept the “U” designation.  Later in its career it would be re-designated SU-1 through SU-4

So back to the O2U was originally powered by a P&W R-1340 Wasp engine. A post war hybrid, it was a steal tube fuselage with doped Fabric wings.  It was a two place aircraft with a pilot and observer.  It had one forward 30 Caliber Browning machine guns.  It was also capable of carrying a double trainable mount for the observer.

The Corsair actually was successful on a couple of fronts.  One was it was to quote Alton Brown a “Multitasker”  The fact that the aircraft could be equipped with floats or conventional landing gear gave it a great deal of flexability  It could to be launched from catapults aboard Battleships and Cruisers.  When not at sea it could be still flown as an conventional aircraft.   The Marines were given the aircraft and it was what was flown by Medal of Honor winner Lt Christian Schlitt.

Eventually 291 were built for the Department of the Navy.  They were flown by the Navy, Marines and U.S. Coast Guard.  The Coasties flew 6 and the majority were flown over the Rio Grand River to protect from illegal immigrations.  The aircraft continued to be flown until World War II. When war did break out there were still 141 in active service.

Vought eventually built 580 Corsairs, and it was a very successful aircraft for export.  Several were exported to countries that would evaluate the technology for the upcoming war.  Both Germany & Japan received copies for evaluation as well as Great Britain.  The following other countries flew the Corsair; Argentina Brazil, China, Mexico, Peru, Thailand.  China and Thailand and Peru used the aircraft in combat.

For more information;

www.uscg.mil/history/webaircraft/Vought_O2U2.pdf

Works Cited

Doll, Thomas E., Berkley R. Jackson, and William A. Riley. Navy Air Colors: United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Aircraft Camouflage and Markings : Vol. 1, 1911-1945. Carrollton: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1983. Print.

"U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office Official Website." US Coast Guard Home. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. <http://www.uscg.mil/history>.

"Vought O2U Corsair." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_O2U_Corsair>.

PS it has a Facebook Fan Page: 

The Aircraft of the Week: The Cessna A-37 Dragonfly “SuperTweet”

You can’t discuss the A-37 without talking briefly about its parent the T-37 Tweet. Awarded a contract in 1954 Cessna built a prototype, which flew on October 12, 1954.  The T-37 was a two side-by-side seat aircraft with initially two Continental J-69’s.  The J-69 was a licensed copy of the Turbiomeca Malbore engine.  One unique feature of the Intakes was a FOD screen that would come up from the bottom of the engine to cover the intakes since they were so low to the ground.  Also the aircraft was given a 14-foot separation of the main landing gear for stability.  The J-69 had a notorious ear splitting whine.  Causing the aircraft to be known as the “6000 Pound Dog Whistle” or TweetyBird eventually this became shortened to just Tweet.

In 1961 the USAF wanted to add weapons delivery to the training syllabus.  Cessna added a hard point capable of carrying 500 lbs under each wing.  65 Gallon wing tip tanks were added as well as a K14C Computing gun site. With these changes the T-37C was born. 

In 1962 the Special Operations Air Warfare centre at Elgin AFB commissioned Cessna to build a Counter Insurgency or COIN aircraft. The aircraft was to have better range thrust and short field ability.  Cessna returned with YAT-37D which competed against the YAT-28E a turboprop version of the T-28 Trojan.  The YAT-37D replaced the J-69s with General Electric J-85-T-25s which doubled the amount of thrust.

The wings were strengthened and the 65-gallon tanks of the T-35C were replaced with 95 Gallon tanks.  The hard points were increased to three on each wing.  A GAU-2B 20mm minimum was placed in the nose and armor was increased throughout the airframe.  Eventually a fourth hard point was added to each wing. To test the aircraft, the USAF decided that it needed to send it into combat.  39 aircraft were ordered and in the process the Air Force changed the designation to A-37A Dragonfly. To everyone else but the Pentagon it was known as the Super Tweet

OPERATION COMBAT DRAGON saw the first use of the A-37 in combat.  25 of the 39 ordered were operated out of Bien Hoa Air Base.  The results of the 3000 sorties flown two aircraft crashed on landings, 24 suffered from anti aircraft fire but not a single aircraft was lost to enemy fire.

The Lessons learned from COMBAT DRAGON brought forth the A-37B the definitive version of the aircraft.  The gross weight was increased to 14,000 pounds, from 6,500 in the T-37A.  The ability to refuel was given to the aircraft.  It was the last USAF aircraft to require probe and drogue refueling.   The A-37B had a max ceiling of 25,000 Feet due to that fact that cockpit was unpressurized.  Eventually 577 would be built. Of that amount 264 were actually transferred to the VNAF eventually falling into communist hands after the fall of South Vietnam.

After the War an additional 110 aircraft were built for the MAP or Military Assistance Program.  Between 1980-1982 122 A-37Bs were re-designated OA-37Bs.  AFRES and ANG squadrons would fly these aircraft.  One of those Squadrons would be the 111^th TAS; Tactical Air Support Group of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard would be based at the Willow Grove Air Force Reserve Base.  They were replaced eventually by OA-10As. 

The T-37C and the A-37B were widely exported to Latin American Countries.  In 1995 both Ecuador and Peru used them against each other during the Cenepa War.   South Korea used it for their Black Eagles Demonstration team.  The Following Nations have flown or are still flying the Super Tweet.

Chile, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, South Korea, South Vietnam, Thailand, United States, Uruguay, Vietnam. 

Currently there are 10 on the civilian registers 4 in Australia and New Zealand and the remainder here in the States.

One last note; the Prototype YAT-37D was originally given to the Air Force Museum in Dayton in December 1964.  It was yanked out of the museum in August 1966 to be the prototype of the YA-37A. After two years of flight-testing, it was returned to the museum in July 1970 where it still resides today.

Love, Terry, and Joe Sewell. A-37/T-37 Dragonfly in Action. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1991. Print.

The Aircraft of the Week PT1 the MB-326

The MB-326 first flew December 10, 1957, and was created as a replacement for Italy’s T-6 Texan fleet.  The 326 used the Rolls Royce Viper engine was a non-afterburning turbojet and was initially built as a completely expendable engine for the Jindivik drone.  Interestingly enough the T-38/F-5 family used the GE J-85 which was designed for the Quail drone and also to be expendable.

The MB-326 exported worldwide.  Though one unique customer Alitalia bought 4 demilled airframes to help their pilots with the conversion to Jet airliners.  Aermacchi was very willing to sell licenses to other nations to produce the aircraft. Two of the Largest were Australia for the RAAF and South Africa for the SAAF.  The CAC or Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation produced 18 kits and 67 airframes for RAAF after getting 12 built by Aermacchi.  The Maneuverability of the aircraft made it the perfect airframe for the Roulettes the RAAF who flew it from 1970 to 1989.  The RAAF retired the aircraft in 2001 in favor of the PC-9.

South Africa received 40 Aermacchi airframes and the produced 125 as the Impala.  The SAAF used the aircraft as a light attack aircraft in the Angolan conflicts.  The Impala’s are credited with the shoot down 6 Mi-8 and Mi-24 Helicopters .  The Silver Falcons the SAAF demonstration Team and flew it from 1967 to 1997.

Embraer built 167 aircraft for the FAB and various countries, Argentina Paraguay and Togo.   

Cameroon still operates 8 of them.

The following Countries have flown or still flying the 326;

Argentina

Australia

Brazil

Cameroon

Democratic Republic of Congo

Dubai

Ghana

Italy

Paraquay

South Africa

Togo

Tunisia

UAE

Zaire

Zambia

So that is the brief history of the MB-326 and its varients.