Warbird Information Exchange

Who knew that the US Army converted S-55 helicopters into fake Mil Mi -24 Hinds..

See photos here and wonder at the marvel - http://www.rotaryaction.com/pages/redawn84.html

It was an Army contract for stinger missle testing. Fifteen S-55's were converted by Orlando Helicopter Airways (OHA) of Sanford, FL. and were delivered in 1989 and 1990 as QS-55's. The original radial was left in the nose and a removable fiberglass replica of the Hind nose was attached over that. Other airframe modifications gave the S-55 a profile amazingly close to that of a real Hind. The major modification was a new, five blade rotor head to replicate the Hinds five blades and that innovation was later used on the S-55QT Whisperjet modification. The remote flight system was built by Honeywell. Accomodations were intact for a ferry pilot.

OHA used whatever airframes and parts were in their inventory and sadly, no attempt at keeping records of the original airframe's c/n or serial # was kept. All of them had been expended by the mid 1990's in tests at White Sands.



There's a video of one here getting blown out of the sky although for some reason they reverted to the 3 blade rotorhead. If you freeze-frame just right at 00:02 you can actually see the missle from the left. It blows the fiberglass nose and canopy all to heck and when the helicopter goes vertical, you notice the engine is gone as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65kYDI8MAFY&list=TLLocCgg8t6as

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Craig

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Weren't there similar (at least cosmetically) conversions done for various Hollywood movies, such as Rambo II and Red Dawn where S-55s were converted to represent Mi-24s?

Don't know about Rambo II but Red Dawn used Pumas I think.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

It seems to me that OPFOR was using something similar at Ft. Irwin in the early to mid 80s.

Speaking of Red Dawn. But do those of you who are old enough remember the statistics about that movie that revolutionized, to a degree, the movie industry?

It seems that this was still in the days of Anti-America and Anti-Military. Not like Vietnam but not anywhere near what it is today. Being unabashedly American and pro-Military was not a "cool" thing, like it is today. So that movie was almost a flop at the Theater. Then the film was released on Video and made it to the Video Stores, where it became the number one rented film that year. It was also the number one or two video tape sold that year. It opened up the whole film to video concept as a gross profit multiplier. Before Red Dawn, the theory was "Popular at the Theater, Popular at Home. A dud at the Theater, a dud at Home". After Red Dawn the Film world realized that people would be much more likely to rent a movie in private that they would be embarrassed to be seen buying a ticket for. Just like a specific market segment of adult entertainment.

Anyway, I do remember seeing simulated Hinds at Ft Irwin sometime in the 80s.

I took some pictures of their storage yard back in the 80's. I'll see if any numbers are visible.

"Red Dawn" used Pumas modded to look like Hind-A's. At least one of the "Rambo" movies used part of the Puma mod, like the wings but didn't use the nose mod. In the late '80s - early '90s the Army studied their own Aggressor - type unit modded helos to look like Hind - D's or later. One sketch I've seen used a Super Puma that looked like a D model. They considered several other off the shelf helos. There was also a Hokum-X project to convert AH-1's into Ka-50 look-a-likes and Havoc-X project to convert ex-USAF CH-3's into Mi-28 look-a-likes. Pics of the modded Cobras are pretty easy to find but so far the closest I've ever seen to the Havoc-X was a drawing of a CH-3 modded to look like a Mi-24 Hind-D, which I was surprised how much it does as I never could imagine a CH-3 looking much like a Mi-28 (or a Mi-24) no matter what!

Ok, so my question is why? Why go to what seems like an extreme amount of trouble and cost on something that was going to be blown to bits? Wouldn't it have been just as effective to test on a stock S-55? Or can a Stinger missile recognize the difference between a friendly and the enemy?!!

I think they were also intended for the anticipated Aggressor role as well, and that's why they went to the extent of the viz-mods. The 5 blade rotor has different signatures than the 3 blade and they were going to add some sort of sound system to help create the turbine sound, IIRC.

The Orlando Helicopter group was involved in the Hind look-alike program.
When interest (or funding after the end of the "cold war") died. the firm (or a successor...I ve read where the original firm had some legal issues) whent on to convert a few surplus airframes into "Whispern Jet" with the five blade rotor system seen on the "Hind" above.

As Craig mentions, the idea was to convert them to turbine, fit new rotor systems, and use them for sightseeing use. Dubbed the S-55QT it had nine seats and a odd feature was the removal of the origin Sikorsky fuel cell and fitting a "glass" floor for sightseeing use.

They did a few which were used at the Grand Canyon. I saw one at the HAI convention back in 2003-4.

The subhject of a recent thread here, the firm (or someone) had a compound full of surplus airframes at the remote Chandler Memorial Field south of Phoenix.
They were recently moved to Casa Grande, AZ.
I guess hope springs eternal and a few more "Whisper Jets" might be built.

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According to a 1987 article about the QS-55 contract, a version of the Stinger could apparently idenify targets by their shape. Thus, the need to make the QS-55 appear as realistic as possible.



While that's certainly possible, I've never seen it mentioned in any of my research on the subject.


PM coming your way!

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Cheers,

Craig

Facebook Groups:

U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky HRS / CH-19 Helicopter Database
U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HO4S / HH-19 Helicopter Database

Something else, the Army was big on target identification in those days. We all had flash cards and charts in the latrine to distinguish between a T-54/55 and an M-48. Or a T-62,64,72, 80 ect.

They might very well have wanted the gunners to be able to distinguish between a Hind and a CH-53, or Cessna for that matter.....

FYI, Bill Yoak (Quick Silver P-51) Did the mods for the "Red Dawn" Hinds.
Jerry

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Snapped one that didn't quite make it, or was used as a mock up for the programme. Seen in Orlando Helicopters dump in early 1990's at Sanford, FL, this was at one time a US Army H-19C serial 51-14259

I wonder if it was one of these that was re-used in an episode of Firefly as an ambulance

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