SCALE MODEL NEWS

SMN report: Here we have China’s Dragon providing us with a cool take on the stealth helicopter that took part in - and crashed during - Operation Geronimo, the night raid in Pakistan that resulted in the death of arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden.  Intelligent design Apart from the tail section, which the world clearly saw from crash photographs, this Dragon kit is a work of intelligent surmise, but fascinating for all that, and the people in the Dragon team have clearly worked hard to produce a realistic and highly possible stealth helicopter design. Details all present Somewhat surprisingly, the kit is to a smallish 1:144 scale, perhaps a bit of a pity to those of us who like our models as big as we can get ‘em. Still, let’s not be churlish, it’s a new-tool 'what if' kit of this special-ops helo, and includes details such as angled surfaces, photo-etch intake details, landing gear that can be assembled in up or down position, and a convincing six-pack of swept rotor blade tips....

SMN report The expert Italian aviation team of David Cenciotti and Ugo Crisponi have got together again to visualise a type of helicopter that Cenciotti thinks could also have taken part in the bin Laden raid in Pakistan. Modifications to the Chinook Like Crisponi’s visual of the MH-60, this Stealth-Chinook depicts many similar features of such a machine, including smoothed and faceted nose and air intakes, but the Chinook's signature fuselage sponsons are shown here modified with a similar treatment. The rotor heads have discs to cover the complex connection assemblies, and the blades themselves are spectacular hooked scimitars.  Good starting point for a stealthy build.   Boarding a standard-issue Chinook. Refuelling options Once again, Cenciotti and Crisponi have included a retractable landing gear and cleaned-up fuselage surfaces, free of all the usual humps and bumps that increase the radar cross-section. A notable omission is the in-flight refuelling probe sported b...

SMN report After news of the secret US stealth chopper that crashed during the bin Laden raid, and the previous NATO bombing of Colonel Gaddafi’s villa in Tripoli, Libya, it struck us that maybe - just maybe - there might be a European-issue stealth helo flying quiet and unseen through the night skies. We had a close look at likely candidates and reckon that the NH90 military helicopter fits the bill pretty well. It has a composite fuselage, a fairly stealthy faceted fuselage, retractable landing gear, and enough room to carry a fully-equipped SAS snatch team. Revell 1:72 scale NH90 kit box. EuroStealth helicopter to capture Gaddafi? The NH Industries machine has become a major success story, and a limited-edition stealth version would make financial sense, particularly if a small number of them were shared across the 11 Euroland countries that fly various versions of the NH90. The drawings show how a fairly minor airframe clean-up could give the NH90 the ‘quietness’ it needs to tackle...

SMN report Those news pictures of the crashed US stealth helicopter have certainly got the aerospace community hotted up with curiosity - and us model fans too. And now the respected Italian aviation writer David Cenciotti has linked up with skilled graphic artist Ugo Crisponi to show what a full-on stealth MH-60K could look like. The visualization, compared above with a standard machine, looks highly convincing and shows a sleek machine that's loaded with stealth features. German forces NH-90. Stealth design details Ugo Crisponi’s visual shows off many of the expected aspects of such a stealth machine, including a faceted fuselage cross-section, similar to that of the European NH-90 multi-role helicopter shown above. There are anti-radar discs over both rotor-heads, a shark-like nose that’s free of sensor protruberances, and - importantly - retractable landing gear. All these ‘smoothing’ design features go toward making such a machine far more likely to survive in a hostile combat...

SMN report The May 2 helicopter raid that led to the killing of Al Qaeda’s Osama Bin Laden also revealed a reduced-radar signature ‘stealth’ modification to the Sikorsky MH-60K Blackhawks used by the mission's crack Special-Ops team. One of the helos crashed during the assault, and was blown up with explosives, but remains of the tail section survived for photographers to capture some teaser images. The shallow dish covers the radar-visible rotor head mechanism. Bin Laden raid pictures The photos reveal mods to the standard MH-60K that could make for a very interesting kitbash. Changes include a pan-like tail-rotor shroud, five or possibly six tail-rotor blades, and a swept stabilator. The news images show just the damaged tail, so the rest of the helicopter’s appearance is guesswork, but it’s possible that the faceted treatment covers the whole fuselage, or at least the main rotor and engine covers. The horizontal stabilator (top pic) has been given a sweepback. Stealth design mod...