We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:49:23 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification So, given what we know about Sugarbuttons Bill, ya gotta think it went down something like this... Bill and V29 (or someone very much like V29) are sitting at a table in a bar in Enterprise, Alabama, telling war storys. The TINS are flying so fast and hard the air has taken on an ochre tint... kinda like a dust storm, only... messier. Anyway, sitting at a table slightly behind them is a white-shirted, dark-pitted, greasy-haired, taped-glasses pocket-protector wearer with pimples, slipstick clipped to his belt. Yeah, an engineer. Taking copious notes on his napkin, because he desperately wants to... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:46:33 -0600 Cheyenne? They shoulda called it the Platypus. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65852 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65852 Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:18:30 -0600 All true, but was it not the fastest hellaflopper ever built? Nope. The Ka-22 and a couple of DARPA one-offs were faster. Of course, all of them (the Cheyenne included) were composite aircraft, using props to boost their speed past the 200-knot mark. A true helicopter has *huge* aerodynamic problems with the rotor system when its airspeed approaches 200 knots, but Westland designed a set of transonic blades and fitted them to a Lynx in 1986 and the beast actually got up to 217 knots in level flight. ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65831 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65831 Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:54:04 -0600 This just in, the exact quote from the voice recorder was: "Hold my beer and watch this!!!!" Followed by crash noises. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65813 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65813 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:42:57 -0600 All true, but was it not the fastest hellaflopper ever built? (Still catchable by lotsa airplanes owned by private citizens, of course.) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65812 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65812 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:59:18 -0600 this, or possibly this. Or this. Cheers]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65811 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65811 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:47:10 -0600 I was in high school near Thousand Oaks, CA from '64-'68, about a half hour south of Pt. Mugu Naval base. Out of which occasionally issued one odd/old/interesting flying machine. The father of two brothers who were classmates of mine was based at Pt. Mugu for a while working on the Man in Sea project. He got us passes to the Armed Forces day airshow one year, where we got to see two passes by an SR-71, a demo of the Fulton system picking up of a fellow from the ground, and the only time I've seen a pair of sidewinders fired off at a flare shot off from the beach. (Best. Airshow. Ever.) Some months later, an AH-56 overflew the school, with something or other flying chase with it, can't recall what. I do remember that the Cheyenne was hands down the strangest sounding, and loudest rotorcraft I have ever in my life heard. The closest thing I can recall to the sound was hearing an A-10 fire its gatling gun, but lower pitched. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65807 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65807 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:51:04 -0600 Saw the 8mm gee-whiz-shazam film Lockheed released in '70, and immediately decided a rotating gunner's station was both needlessly complicated and the fastest way to induce vertigo in a mildly-maneuvering aircraft. Plus that reduced the internal support for the pilot's station. When the test ship looped, that confirmed my decision to never get inside one. I don't *do* inverted well. BTW, didja get a pic of the dinged tail rotor blade? Got half a dozen decent grognard-type shots when I was down that way before the Pak jaunt. No, I didn't ding it. I was drinking in the club at the time... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65801 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65801 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:51:26 -0600 Your version sounds much more realistic, John. At least, I can totally picture it ;-) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65796 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65796 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:11:57 -0600 I *said* it was scary! Geez, MajMike... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65793 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65793 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:24:08 -0600 15 straight minutes of sobriety for a Blackhorse aviator?? what kind of sap do you take me for! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65792 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65792 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:13:21 -0600 Well it sure wasn't me. Nothing short of an atom bomb could scare me sober! Well one thing could... flying copilot with Sugarbuttons and hear him say, "Watch This". Anytime a pilot with the controls says watch this, cinch up your parachute and if you're in a helimachopper, bend over and kiss it goodbye. Chances are you're in for the ride of your life, literally. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65791 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65791 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:13:09 -0600 No that is a good looking bird! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65789 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/10/on_how_the_chey.html#comment-65789 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:35:07 -0600