AAH Competition (AH-64 rivals)

overscan (PaulMM)

overscan (PaulMM)

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1972 US Army AAH Program : Competition for the Advanced Attack Helicopter was between the Hughes Model 77 (YAH-64) and the Bell 409 (YAH-63).

Other contenders were the Boeing Vertol AAH and the Lockheed CL-1700, a Cheyenne derivative. The Hughes Model 77 was selected and designated the AH-64 Apache.
 
overscan said:
1972 US Army AAH Program : Competition for the Advanced Attack Helicopter was between the Hughes Model 77 (YAH-64) and the Bell 409 (YAH-63).

Other contenders were the Boeing Vertol AAH and the Lockheed CL-1700, a Cheyenne derivative. The Hughes Model 77 was selected and designated the AH-64 Apache.
Click to expand...

It's too bad they didn't use an improved Cheyenne itself as that CL-1700's ugliness is exceeded only by Boeing's entry. I wonder how a Cheyenne with Apache's avionics and sensors would do.
 
It's nothing to do with the competition, but some time back I worked with some folks who helped design the AH-64 and I learned something amusing. Those little masts with flat tops on both engine nacelles? Those are supports for the nacelle structure when it's open for maintenance work; the flat spots are the same adjustable feet you find on desks, chairs, etc. mounted on a faired strut. It lets the open nacelle be used as a maintenance shelf.
 
Don't know what you all think, but in my opinion the US Army today in the war it fights today would make a better use of the Cheyenne (or some derivative, e.g. two engines and more armor) than of what it can do with the AH-64, which was targeted to a completely different scenario (anti-tank ambush, popping up from behind the trees, shot a Hellfire and run the faster you can before the Soviet could trow everything they have at you).
 
Topic was split up into separate topics for each contender:
  • Hughes Model 77 (YAH-64A) here.
  • Bell Model 409 (YAH-63A) here.
  • Boeing Vertol BV-235 here.
  • Lockheed CL-1700 here.
  • Sikorsky S-71 here.
Please use this here topic only as a starting point or to share information and documents pertaining to the whole AAH program.
Please use the separate topics for additions about one particular design.
 
Just as a side note gents if I can, as I've already mentioned I've just finished reading Modern Battlefield Warplanes by David Donald. In it under the AH-64 Apache entry, it makes mention that:
"Hughes Helicopters responded to the AAH competition with a design based on it's egg-shaped OH-6......... However Hughes's designers respected its [the OH-6's] structural integrity enough to use it as their starting point.
All OH-6 developments soon turned out to be too small to make an effective AAH, so Hughes engineers ultimately produced the Model 77 [YAH-64]"

So does anyone have any pics / drawings of these OH-6 AAH derivatives????
I would be greatly interested!

Regards
Pioneer
 

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