Thread: Hold the foam Bruce, the Aussies just dumped another Euro Military contract

Bye Bye Taipans ...

Hello ... Sikorsky Romeo Seahawks

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Australia to buy $1.3 billion fleet of US-made choppers as navy dumps troubled European-made MRH-90 Taipans

The Royal Australian Navy is set to dump its troubled fleet of European-made MRH 90 Taipan helicopters, replacing them with US-made Seahawks in a deal worth around $1.3 billion.

Key points:

• The US Defence Security Cooperation Agency has approved the sale of 12 Sikorsky Romeo Seahawk helicopters to Australia
• The helicopters are expected to eventually replace the navy's six Airbus-made MRH-90s
• Australia's fleet of MRH 90s were first acquired from 2006 but have suffered from poor availability since entering service

Earlier this year, the ADF grounded all 47 Taipan helicopters used by the navy and army due to safety and maintenance concerns.

Overnight, the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency revealed it had approved the sale of 12 Sikorsky Romeo Seahawk helicopters to Australia, expected to eventually replace the navy's six Airbus-made MRH-90s.
"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible foreign military sale to the government of Australia of MH-60R Multi-Mission Helicopters, related defence services, and related equipment for an estimated cost of $986 million USD," a statement said.




HERE

MH-60R Romeo Seahawk technical review world’s most advanced maritime helicopter

Originally Posted by sabang

after their helicopter ditched in the Philippine Sea

Originally Posted by sabang

a helicopter got into difficulty and made an emergency landing on Wednesday night.

Originally Posted by sabang

It got into difficulties,

their helicopter ditched ...?

a helicopter got into difficulty .... ?

It got into difficulties ....?

Does the helicopter fly itself?

Maybe the voice control AI doesn't understand the Oz language.

Originally Posted by bsnub

You are as usual wrong

A fully successful and decorated Russian aeronautical engineer.

Educated, designing and building planes in Russia since 1910, way before moving to NaGstan

"Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (Russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, tr. Ígor' Ivánovič Sikórskij; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972)^[4] was a Russian–American^[1][2][3] aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

His first success came with the S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construction. His fifth airplane, the S-5, won him national recognition as well as F.A.I. license number 64.^[5]

His S-6-A received the highest award at the 1912 Moscow Aviation Exhibition, and in the fall of that year the aircraft won first prize for its young designer, builder and pilot in the military competition at Saint Petersburg.^[6]

After immigrating to the United States in 1919, Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923,^[7] and developed the first of Pan American Airways' ocean-crossing flying boats in the 1930s.

In 1939, Sikorsky designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300,^[8] the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters today.^[9] Sikorsky modified the design into the Sikorsky R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sikorsky

As for helicopters, it appears the Chinese had them flying in 320 AD.

Bamboo-copter

"The bamboo-copter, also known as the bamboo dragonfly or Chinese top (Chinese zhuqingting (竹蜻蜓), Japanese taketonbo 竹蜻蛉), is a toy helicopter rotor that flies up when its shaft is rapidly spun. This helicopter-like top originated in Jin dynasty China around 320 AD,^[1] and was the object of early experiments by English engineer George Cayley, the inventor of modern aeronautics.^[2]

In China, the earliest known flying toys consisted of feathers at the end of a stick, which was rapidly spun between the hands and released into flight.

"While the Chinese top was no more than a toy, it is perhaps the first tangible device of what we may understand as a helicopter."

"This Chinese helicopter toy was introduced into Europe and "made its earliest appearances in Renaissance European paintings and in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo-copter