Post by Marcus on May 2, 2008 12:10:58 GMT 12
Hi all
In one of our threads there was a photo of a French Alouette III landing on HMNZS Canterbury. Leading on from this I thought the following might be of some interest.
During the 1980's South Africa designed and developed the Rooivalk attack chopper. A technology demonstrator was built to test the validity of the design. The TD was a converted Alouette III.
I took the following pics over several years and hope they might be of interest to the group. Photos all taken on "old" print film. Please accept that quality is thus not as good.
(The stats for the Alpha have been taken from Wikipedea and not my own research.)
Alpha XH-1 SAAF Museum 1992
For comparison here are two pics of the intended product.
Rooivalk (Afrikaans for Red Kestrel) Demonstrator/prototype at the Pretoria Show in 1992 Interesting to compare this airframe with the final production one as seen in the last photo.
Production Rooivalk 670 Swartkops 1999
Statistics for the Alpha
The Alpha XH-1 was a prototype attack helicopter built by Atlas Aviation (now Denel Aerospace Systems) of South Africa, which used it as a concept demonstrator for the then-planned Rooivalk project.
Development
It was developed from an Alouette III airframe, retaining that helicopter's engine and dynamic components, but replacing the original cockpit with a stepped tandem one, adding a 20 mm cannon on the nose and converting the undercarriage to tail-dragger configuration.
The XH-1 first flew on 3 February 1985, and soon embarked on a rigorous flight test program to examine the feasibility of a dedicated attack helicopter in southern African conditions. The results were ultimately good enough to convince Atlas and the South African Air Force to go ahead with the development of a dedicated attack helicopter - the AH-2 Rooivalk.
It should be noted however that the XH-1 and Rooivalk are completely different aircraft and share no components (the Rooivalk was developed from the later XH-2 prototype).
The sole XH-1 was retired sometime in the late 1980s and was handed over to the South African Air Force Museum, where it remains to this day.
Specifications (XH-1)
General characteristics
Crew: 2 (pilot and gunner)
Length: 10.56 m (34 ft 7 in)
Rotor diameter: 11.02 m (36 ft 2 in)
Height: 2.73 m (8 ft 7 in)
Empty weight: 1,400 kg (3,086 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 2,200 kg (4,850 lb)
Powerplant: 1× Turbomeca Artouste IIIB turboshaft, 410 kW (550 shp)
Performance
Maximum speed: 200 km/h (108 kts, 124 mph)
Range: 550 km (297 nm, 344 mi)
Armament
1 × Vektor GA-1 Rattler cannon in a chin turret with 1,000 rounds
In one of our threads there was a photo of a French Alouette III landing on HMNZS Canterbury. Leading on from this I thought the following might be of some interest.
During the 1980's South Africa designed and developed the Rooivalk attack chopper. A technology demonstrator was built to test the validity of the design. The TD was a converted Alouette III.
I took the following pics over several years and hope they might be of interest to the group. Photos all taken on "old" print film. Please accept that quality is thus not as good.
(The stats for the Alpha have been taken from Wikipedea and not my own research.)
Alpha XH-1 SAAF Museum 1992
For comparison here are two pics of the intended product.
Rooivalk (Afrikaans for Red Kestrel) Demonstrator/prototype at the Pretoria Show in 1992 Interesting to compare this airframe with the final production one as seen in the last photo.
Production Rooivalk 670 Swartkops 1999
Statistics for the Alpha
The Alpha XH-1 was a prototype attack helicopter built by Atlas Aviation (now Denel Aerospace Systems) of South Africa, which used it as a concept demonstrator for the then-planned Rooivalk project.
Development
It was developed from an Alouette III airframe, retaining that helicopter's engine and dynamic components, but replacing the original cockpit with a stepped tandem one, adding a 20 mm cannon on the nose and converting the undercarriage to tail-dragger configuration.
The XH-1 first flew on 3 February 1985, and soon embarked on a rigorous flight test program to examine the feasibility of a dedicated attack helicopter in southern African conditions. The results were ultimately good enough to convince Atlas and the South African Air Force to go ahead with the development of a dedicated attack helicopter - the AH-2 Rooivalk.
It should be noted however that the XH-1 and Rooivalk are completely different aircraft and share no components (the Rooivalk was developed from the later XH-2 prototype).
The sole XH-1 was retired sometime in the late 1980s and was handed over to the South African Air Force Museum, where it remains to this day.
Specifications (XH-1)
General characteristics
Crew: 2 (pilot and gunner)
Length: 10.56 m (34 ft 7 in)
Rotor diameter: 11.02 m (36 ft 2 in)
Height: 2.73 m (8 ft 7 in)
Empty weight: 1,400 kg (3,086 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 2,200 kg (4,850 lb)
Powerplant: 1× Turbomeca Artouste IIIB turboshaft, 410 kW (550 shp)
Performance
Maximum speed: 200 km/h (108 kts, 124 mph)
Range: 550 km (297 nm, 344 mi)
Armament
1 × Vektor GA-1 Rattler cannon in a chin turret with 1,000 rounds
