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 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...