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CH-47 Chinook replica


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So, we've seen the amazing UH-1 replica by @Redshift OTF and the equally amazing AH-1 replica from @pTrevTrevs.

Now it's my turn to bring you something from that era, the Chinook, my all time favorite helicopter next to the UH-1 Huey.

 

Little bit of history:

The Boeing-Vertol developed CH-47 Chinook was created to replace the USAF's fleet of CH-37 Mojave helicopters. It was developed as a twin-rotor heavy-lift helicopter, but has been used as a gunship, and even as a passenger helicopter by the British Airways.

It's main task is to airlift troops, supplies, light vehicles and field guns to the front lines.

The Chinook was put into service in the early 1960s and is still operational today witch proves that it is the perfect tool for the job. Due to this, It has been operated by 16 different countries, and has found use in the Vietnam war, Operation Desert Storm and the Falkland wars, witch is quite a service record.

As mentioned above, it has also found use as a Passenger helicopter under British Airways and Helifor among others.

 

On with the KSP version:

Instead of trying to make it a 1:1 size replica, i made more of a Kerbal scale one, using a little Metal Earth model of it as reference.

As usual, the build/testing phase took me something like 3-4 hours, but that's mainly because i had a pretty good idea on how to build the Chinook.

Even the cockpit was pretty easy to put together, tough a lot of tweaking was involved.

(i moved the landing-gears into their correct positions after those test-flights).

The Chinook is very easy to fly, witch came to me as a complete surprise. I think it's mostly due to me using a lot of hidden and not so hidden control surfaces.

WARNING: The Chinook can run out of intake air at totally random times (propably caused by sharp maneuvers), this may...ehm...slightly affect the way the chopper handles. So, don't fly too low while doing sharp maneuvers or you might crash.

Originally it had only two rotors, and it flew fine, but to give it a chance of actually being able to lift something (need KAS for that), i gave it four instead. But as a minus, the range is halved.

It could have been around 50 km but now it's only 25 km.

 

Top speed: 40 m/s in level flight.

Range: 25 km with the current fuel load of 568/922. More can be loaded if needed.

Lifting capacity: 13-15 tons of cargo:

Length:  19.5m.

Width: 11.7m.

Height: 5.4m

Mass: 20 tons.

Parts: 249.

Mod used: KAX.

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/m8k3xs4tdwknhmt/CH-47 Chinook (KSP).craft?dl=0

So there it is for you, the mighty Chinook in KSP. i hope you enjoy it :).

 

Edited by kapteenipirk
typo
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You may feel bad about having to ditch in the ocean, but I can tell you that Chinook pilots are trained to land on water (I forget why), and the Chinook in real life is sufficiently watertight and buoyant enough to do this. 

Source: The simulator complexes around where I live occasionally do events where the public can come in and fly them, so I got to fly a CH-47E simulator, and the pilot had me hover over a lake and land.

I don't mean to brag, but I did much better than my friend, who impaled the helicopter on a tree when trying to land.

Edited by pTrevTrevs
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29 minutes ago, pTrevTrevs said:

You may feel bad about having to ditch in the ocean, but I can tell you that Chinook pilots are trained to land on water (I forget why), and the Chinook in real life is sufficiently watertight and buoyant enough to do this. 

Source: The simulator complexes around where I live occasionally do events where the public can come in and fly them, so I got to fly a CH-47E simulator, and the pilot had me hover over a lake and land.

I don't mean to brag, but I did much better than my friend, who impaled the helicopter on a tree when trying to land.

Nice. I have been in 3 realistic simulators, one of them was a Beechcraft simulator in witch our class, one by one, did an engine test.

I have done it in a real aircraft too, a Piper Arrow Cherokee, two times. In the second test, the aircraft jumped off from the chalks (cuz the handbrake was leaking) that hold you in place and started to roll forward, AT FULL SPEED in a small yard. I got a BIT of a lifetime trauma from that. Thank god me and my friend had quick reflexes.

The other one was a Cessna simulator (it was a 20 minute trial run) and the third one was a Glider aircraft simulator (one short flight).

In both cases, the instructor was amazed by my ability to fly like i would have done it before, even tough i hadn't even touched a simulator before.

But if there's one thing a simulator doesn't have, it's the real "stick feel", i got to experience that once, when i was a passenger on a glider aircraft and the pilot let me fly in a straight line for a about 30 or so seconds. It feels quite different, you can feel the wind and the weight of the controls.

Not Bragging btw.

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1 hour ago, kapteenipirk said:

In both cases, the instructor was amazed by my ability to fly like i would have done it before, even tough i hadn't even touched a simulator before.

Be reassured, piloting is like everything else, some "born with", "have it flowing through their veins" and learn quickly. I personally started to take some lessons at 14 and have not stopped flying since (but no CPL, alas...). The trouble is that a certain number of pilots, in the private as in pro, are true clumsy and never admit it, thinking they can do anything until THE day. I knew one of them who was always making jokes about me as a kid, cause I was spending my entire days flying on simulators, repeating all the time : "this is not realistic," "do you really think you could hand on a more than 250 t" or other traditional smelly scoff. The same idiot ended at one occasion off TFFJ RWY 10, having his PA-32 the nose first in the sand cause he touched after Charlie and decided to stop at all... at an airfield where some 14-15 aged kids know how to deal with the apps and landings.

 

BTW sorry for such release.

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16 minutes ago, Redshift OTF said:

Wow, impressive! Another one for the collection :) I love the cockpit detail and the lights for windows. You could probably clip in an extra couple of radial intakes somewhere to help mitigate lack of air issues.

Thanks :). I already clipped in 6 structural intakes to help with the problem, but even that didn't help. and now pretty much every hole is stuffed up with something.

 

28 minutes ago, Combatsmithen said:

hell yes!

Thanks :).

32 minutes ago, XB-70A said:

The trouble is that a certain number of pilots, in the private as in pro, are true clumsy and never admit it

Well, we have all done it haven't we. We've all made mistakes that we have just hid under the carpet so that we don't get embarrased.

It's always a matter or pride.

But yea, it's better to just openly admit your mistakes so that people will be laughing with you, instead of laughing at you.

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9 hours ago, Azimech said:

And wheels are finicky but work fine. Just can't handle a lot of stress.

If you want to build a bearing bigger than the Ares 3A. I have a lot of working bearings that are huge but for practical small ones you have to ditch wheels all together for structural parts that make it nearly impossible for them to be stable. Sure wheels and stuff work great if your making house sized azimech bearings but in reality you need them to be small. Hopefully my Mi-24 "replica" that I might release this week will finally work with a neat sized one. I have been experimenting for months. And of course Majorjimmy they work great for things that turn slowly but if you're making an engine for huge RPMs for like helicopter applications don't work that great anymore.

Edited by Jon144
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