It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s A Helicopter!

    More Movies! And these are good one too. I have a whole stack of movies in front of me and if you were to ask someone what was something that they all have in common I doubt that they would say that they are all alike because they all have helicopter/s in them. But they do and it is very cool and fun to talk about it. Well my girlfriend says that is cool.

    In the movie Tropic Thunder it is almost like The Expendables, meaning that it too has a wide cast of famous stars all put into one big movie. The big difference is that this is a comedy and they are comedians. The movie starts out with them trying to make a movie about war but the actors are being pains and they mess up a really expensive shot. You see Jack Black hanging from a fake helicopter by a rope. By the end of the movie things get a little too real for the actors. Short story is that they need to get saved by a real helicopter. With a classic running to the helicopter (or plane) at the last minute to escape death.

    In the movie Jurassic Park the park is on an island so the only way to get to it is by helicopter. The movie starts off by a helicopter blowing dirt all over Dr. Grants fossils. The man wants Dr. Grant to help support his park so he pays Dr. Grant a lot of money and flies him and some others to the island. Well the dinosaurs get out and start killing people. Their only hope is to turn the power back on and call for help. Who do you think help is? That is right. A helicopter!

    In the movie The Lost World: Jurassic Park

There isn’t a whole lot of helicopters or really cool parts with them but there is a couple. When the main people are on the side of the island they can see the bad guys flying by in their helicopter carrying their equipment. (off road vehicles ect.) And at the end while the mother T-Rex is loose in a city you can kind of see them.

In the movie Jurassic park 3 (the best one) a divorced mother and father pretend to be rich to hire Dr. Grant to take them to the island. To secretly look for their son. They fly there in a plane. (Bad bad bad idea. Should have taken a helicopter there.) When they get there they are chased right away. They crash the plane trying to take off  to get away. (Would not have happened in a helicopter) Coolest part of the movie is when a T-Rex fights a Spine-asorus. Then they find their son and get to the side of the island. And who saves them and gets them to safety? A Helicopter!!! Just like the first one. And it even picked up one of their friends who they thought died.

  

“Live For Nothing Or Die For Something” - John Rambo

Schwarzenegger is not the only star in movies to work with helicopter. Sylvester Stallone likes using them (and blowing them up) too. It seems if you want to make a big movie bigger you can use big actors. (I hate a lot of actors) And you can add big special effects. But the coolest thing to do is to had real big real props. What is a cool prop to use in a big movie? Best answer would be a helicopter of course.

In the movie First Blood Sylvester Stallone plays John Rambo a vet who just got home. The cops in the small town do not like Rambo and arrest him. Rambo escapes and steals a dirt-bike and rides it into the forest. The cops chase him and the main bad cop shoots at him from a helicopter. The bad cop falls out of the helicopter and dies, and Rambo is blamed.

In the movie that follows Rambo First Blood part 2 Rambo gets let out of jail to go on a super hard mission. He does not do what he is exactly supposed to do. Rambo ends up flying back in a helicopter full of rescued P.O.W.s (prisoners of war) After he lands the damaged helicopter he takes an M60 and shoots the heck out of the generals computers.

In the movie Rambo 3 Rambo is back again to save his friend Col. Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) is captured during a top-secret mission in Afghanistan. Well Rambo raises heck to get him back. During the movie that bad guy is using his awesome helicopters a lot, and really causing some destruction. What does Rambo do? First he shoots one down with a huge machine gun. Then  he crashes a tank right into a different one. A TANK! That is just too cool. (Saddly there is not really any helicopters in the newest Rambo)

In the movie Live Free Or Die Hard

Bruce Willis also does something that is without a doubt cool. Bruce Willis was being chased by a helicopter with mounted machine gun. Bruce takes a police car and gasses it at a toll booth then jumps out of the car before the police car goes flying into the air crashing into the bad guys helicopter. Making it explode. (As cool and awesome as helicopters are, it is alway sweeter to watch them crash or explode.)

In the movie series The expendables Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and many other actors join together in one big movie. The first two I really like, they were great. But the third one was just ok.. But it had a helicopter in it! The scene with the helicopter is the part that I liked the most. The team is flying a cool little combat helicopter by and over a train during a rescue mission. Without a helicopter there would be a lot of military missions that would not be possible. (In real life or fake movie stuff)

 

Get To Da Choppa!

    Besides being extremely useful in the real world, helicopters play a big role in cinema on the big movie theater screen and the little home screen. I really like helicopters and I have noticed in a lot of movies that I have seen that there are parts including big scenes using helicopters. You might see a helicopter in the climax of the movie, the rescue in the end, or just to had a little dramatic affect.

    In the movie Predator Schwarzenegger’s famous line, “Get to da choppa!” He is telling a girl to get to the helicopter while he is fighting the predator. After beating the predator, the predator activated it’s failsafe explosive device timer. Schwarzenegger gets away from the blast and the helicopter comes pick him up.

    In the movie Alien vs Predator: Requiem the whole town gets infected by a half Alien and half Predator monster and its Alien babies. The government tells the people in the town to meet in the middle of the town. The main people in the movie know it is a trick so they go to the hospital to get the helicopter to get out of town. As they fly out of town the government nukes the town at the same time the main predator and the Alien/Predator kill each other. The explosion’s blast causes the helicopter to crash land. But the people live and are taken by the army.

    In the movie Terminator 2 Judgment day Schwarzenegger is back this time to save the day as the Terminator, against the liquid metal Terminator. The liquid metal Terminator jumps his motorcycle out of a building’s window at a helicopter, grabbing on to the helicopter and pulling himself up. He breaks the helicopter’s window with his head then slips in like liquid. He makes the pilot jump out then chases Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger slams on his breaks in the police armored vehicle and the helicopter crashes into it making the helicopter explode and wreck.

    In the movie Terminator Genisys Terminator is back again to break more helicopters. In the scene where they are at the hospital, Schwarzenegger and the rest get in a helicopter to fly away. But the new evil robot John Connor is chasing them in a what looks like a faster helicopter. Schwarzenegger says his most famous line, “I’ll be back.” And jumps from their helicopter and lands head on into the other helicopter making it crash.

There is just so many great movies that use helicopters in them to save the day or for the bad guy to be that much more evil. And every-time I see one I say, “Helicopter!” Most people probably do not even think about it. I will most likely write two or three blog posts about great movies that are even better because they have helicopters in them. Next helicopter I am going to talk about after that are going to be new ones that came out not to long ago. They have awesome new features and it is going to be great.

 

 

 

  


  

CH-53E Super Stallion Helicopter

    Going to talk about another United States Marine Corps (USMC) helicopter. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is the Marine Corps’ primary heavy lift helicopter and has been in service for over 30 years.  It is manufactured Sikorsky and there are currently over 152 CH-53E aircraft in operation.

    The awesome CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter uses GPS, doppler radar, FLIR, and ANVIS-HUD sensors to keep it safer while flying. To also keep it safe and attack enemies it uses .62mm and 50 caliber guns (as a mission kit). To keep in communications it used UHF/VHF/HF radios, secure comm. capability and IFF. Making this a really safe and deadly helicopter.

    This beast of a heavy-lift helicopter the Marine Corps use can carry a 26,000 pound light armored vehicle, 16 tons of cargo fifty miles and back (100 miles!). Or it can carry enough combat loaded Marines to lead an assault or a helpful humanitarian operation.

    Although the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is powerful enough to lift every aircraft in the Marine inventory, except the KC-130, the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is compact enough to deploy on amphibious assault ships, with its speed and agility it can easily qualify as much more than a heavy lifter.

    The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is armed with window mounted 50 caliber machine guns.  It has chaff and flare dispensers for anti air defense. It even has an in-flight refueling probe for limitless range and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) imager for night and all-weather navigation. The  CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter is often called the assault transport of Marine ground forces.

    The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter has played many roles in our US wars. 1980s, the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter saw its first shipboard deployment. It was deployed in Beirut, Lebanon as a transport for peacekeepers. 1990s, it was used in Operation Desert Storm. 2000s, it was used in Afghanistan, Iraq.

    The crew takes two pilots, one crew chief/right gunner, one left gunner, one tail gunner (combat crew). Not including the crew the helicopter can transport 37 Marine troops and 55 with centerline centerline seats installed. It has a length of 99 feet and a half inches.The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter has a rotor diameter of 79 feet. A height of 27 feet and 9 inches. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter has a nice disc area of 4,900 ft^2.

    To me this helicopter is like a Chinook helicopter and an Apache helicopter put together. It has power like a Chinook helicopter and the firepower like an Apache helicopter. It is the best of both worlds. If I was a Marine I might even like it better than the Cobra. My friend knows a lot about the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter and tells me it is a beast and he is really into aviation flying machines also.

    There is a chance after I graduate college and become an Army National Guard pilot I could become a United States Marine Corps pilot. That would be an amazing job.

Rayjun Ewell

10/31/2015

AH-1W/AH-1Z Super Cobra Attack Helicopter

                The AH-1W Super Cobra is the US Marines’ attack helicopter. This helicopter started its service in 1985 and its first flight was in 1969 but it is still in service and there are over 1,271 of them. Approximately 167 AH-W Super Cobra Helicopters are being used by the United States Marine Core. The Super Cobra can carry both TOW and Hellfire ant-armour missile. The TOW missile has a range of more than 3km semi-automatic command-to-line-of-sights guidance. The Hellfire missile has laser seeking and has a range of 7km.

    This is a very cool helicopter. And I actually had a Marine say I should fly for them. This is the one I would have wanted to fly. Perfect weapons and speed for me. It fires unguided 70mm rockest or a larger 127mm Zuni rocket bombs. The Super Cobra carries a three-barrel, 20mm Gatling fun for close-range (up to 2km) engagement and 750 rounds of ammunition. The pilot aims the gun by movine the helicopter in fixed-forward postition or one of the crew members can aim the gun by using the helmet mounted sight and aim the gun by just looking at the target. (like the apache gun)  

    The AH-1Z for the United States Marine Core will be armed with 16 Hellfire missiles, six AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, 70mm rocket pods (seven-shot and 19 shot and a 20mm gun. Meaning this helicopter is going to be packing some serious heat.

    Even with all of this heat a helicopter still needs countermeasures. The Cobra has AN/APR-39(XE2) radar warner and ATK AN/AAR47 missle warning system. It is equipped with AN/ALE-9 chaff and infarred flare depensers. The are used for when the helicopter is being shot at with missiles or RPGs, it pops out flares so that the missile blows up before it hits the helicopter so the helicopter doesn’t crash.

    AH-1W/AH-1Z Super Cobra Attack Helicopter has Twin General Electric T700-GE-401 turboshaft engines it grants the helicopter 2,410kW or 3,380shp. The AH-1W/AH-1Z Super Cobra Attack Helicopter can take off and climb out at more than 4.1 m/s on only one engine.  The helicopter can clie ate the rate of 8.2m a second. The helicopter has a great speed of 388km/h. Maximim endurance of the helicopter 3h and 30min. The helicopter weighs 4,953kg. Maximim take-off weight is 6,690kgm. 

    This will be an amazying helicopter to see one day. I have only seen a few helicoptes up close before and this one seems one of the more kick butt ones. I wa nt to take a ride in all of the helicopters I can. I don’t think I will get the chance to ride in this one, AH-1W/AH-1Z Super Cobra Attack Helicopter. Maybe one day. But for now I am still getting ready to go to basic combat training. Can not wait to get more into the aviation field. Helicoptes are cool!

 

The Apache Helicopter

    The Apache helicopter, it is know as one of the most kick-butt helicopters around the world. And with very good reason too. The Apache helicopter can fly at a top speed of 182 miles per hour and climb at a rate of 889m/min and as high as 15,000 feet with its four blades, twin-turboshaft engines each giving it 1265kW and tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement. It weighs 51,65kg and its maximum take off weight is 10,433kg.

    The Apache was first used in combat in 1989 in Panama. Then in 1997 (when I was born) the United States Army got delivered the first Apache Longbow. The Longbow has the  Longbow Hellfire missiles.

    The total main weapons are; a 30mm automatic Boeing M230 chain gun, it is located under the fuselage. It has a rate of fire of 625 rounds a minute and can hold 1,200 rounds of ammunition and take out a target over two miles away. Which is a very fast rate of fire for a round that big and being able to hold that much ammo of just that one caliber is amazing to me. It is armed with Lockheed Martin / Boeing AGM-114D Longbow Hellfire air-to-surface missile. The Hellfire missile can use a millimetre wave seeker that allows the missile to work in full fire and forget mode. It can shoot up to 8km to 12km. Besides having air-to-surface missiles, the Apache also has  air-to-air missiles. Like, Stingers, AIM-9s, sidewinders, Mistrals and sidearms. And it used really advanced guided precision kill aiming systems.

The AH-64 Longbow Apache carries the combo of armaments picked to use for the certain mission that it is going on. If it is going on a close support mission it will carry four four-rail launchers and four air-to-air missiles. (like the picture I added)

The Apache is like a flying tank.  The windshield is made out of reinforced glass that can take all kinds of small arms fire. Its primary adjective is to apply death and destruction on the battlefield. It can do removers in the air most helicopters can not do. It can do barrel rolls and loops. Which is very helpful if you are trying to dodge missiles or gunfire from an oncoming enemy.

It takes two years to become a pilot. It takes great nerves, they call it riding riding the dragon. A hard part of flying an Apache is shifting your eyes, because your right eyes is fitted with a monocle. 12 different images can be places in the monocles eye. Wherever you are looking is where the computer is going to aim the helicopter’s weapons.

I would love to become a Apache helicopter pilot. To have all of that firepower and go on awesome dangerous missions. But it is very hard to get into. First you have to be an officer the a warrant officer then go to flight school. That would definitely be worth it though. Flying one of the best helicopter’s in the world. 

  

Black Hawks

    Being a black hawk pilot would be my first choice in my aviation career. The UH-60 Black Hawk has been operational in the United States Army since 1978. There are different varities of the Black Hawk, the S-70 is the export version of the multi-mission UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

    In the United State’s military there are over 2000 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters variants that are in service. And there are over 600 that are exported. There are over four million flying hours logged away with the Black Hawk helicopteres. The logged hours come from training and combat missions that took place in places like Grenada, Panama, the liberation of Kuwait, Somalla, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other humanitarian and rescue missions.

    The main function of the Black Hawk helicopter is as a troop carrier. (I would love flying awesome soldiers, they’ll say, “Ewell (sounds like you’ll) get us there.”) and logistical support aircraft, so just making sure ground troops have all the info they need. It can include functions like medical evacuation, command-and control, search-and-rescue, armed escort, electronic warfare and executive transport missions. (I think it would be really cool to fly down in to an area of operarion with a hummer handing from me and drop everyone off will I give support from the sky) The S-70  Black Hawk helicopter can fly for 11 fully equipped soldier or four litters. And when flying through high risk places the helicopter has the ability to tolerate small arms fire and most high-explosive, medium-calibre (23) projectiles.

The S-70 Black Hawk has a crew of three. The pilot, the copilot, they sit at the flight deck. And one crew member in the cabin. The S-70 can have a AFCS (automated flight computer system) instoled to help make piloting easier. The S-70 Black Hawk has many great multi-usage weapon systems. The S-70 can use a hellfire ant-armour missle that is laser-guided. The S-70 can carry 16 hellfire missiles. It carries the missiles in the external stores support system (ESSS). The ESSS can carry up to 10,000 pounds of payload. Tne S-70 Black Hawk can mount 7.62mm or .50-calibre machine guns in the windows. And to keep it safe from laser targeting systems it can use a Goodrich AN/AVR-2B laser threat warning system that will tell the crew when someone is trying to shoot them down.

To talk to troops and its command the S-70 is equipped with a voice and data communications suite including VHF, UHF communications, an identification friend or foe (IFF). It has two general electric turboshaft engines, the United State’s Army Black Hawks are fitted with the latest version, the 701D, it is rated at 2000shp.

I would love to be a Black Hawk pilot. My duties would be to navigate and communicate under combat conditions. Operate aircraft in all types of weather conditions during the day and night with night-vision. And carry out any orders my commanding officer tells me. This is one of the hardest jobs I can think of but I am up for the challenge.