RAH-66 Comanche

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[chrisbertucio]

So happy to see this video. My father was one of the engineers at Sikorsky who worked on this. I still have the commemorative coin he got for the "First Flight"

[tonychesser]

If you've read "The Design of Design, " by Dr Fred Brooks, you know he was invited to a meeting discussing the requirements for this chopper. He was escorted to the meeting by a Marine Corp general who had extensive experience with helicopters. When they were talking about the weapons capabilities, he general was quite happy. When they got to the part of about the ferry range, the general stated that they just killed it; there was no way to have the ferry range AND everything else. Ergo, he knew this was going to be cancelled before they built the first prototype.

[mattevans]

My favourite unit in Command and Conquer: Generals were Commanches. A horde of them flying into an enemy base was a sight to behold.

[timothyhernandez]

To tell you how close this airframe came to being in service, I did my ground training for the AH64D in the building that was built to teach the first group of aviators in the AH66 Comanche. There were transmission models for the Comanche on display in the common areas, and of course pictures of the Comanche everywhere. We were told that had the decision been made to move forward with production we would have been among the first groups of aviators to be trained in the new airframe. That was in 2006.

[liferlanceadventures]

I met one of the test pilots for this platform in 2018. He was constantly depressed that it didn't make it to full production. According to him it was a perfect blend of an Apache and a Little Bird. Hard to see/find and very potent. I kinda remember him saying it would be a perfect vanguard attack help and great for contested airspace because at the time it was the only US helo being designed to have air to air capabilities. The Zulu Cobra does that now.

[maurvir]

Years ago, before it was cancelled, I got to see one of the two flying prototypes of the Comanche. It really was a groundbreaking helicopter in a lot of ways, but it was in development so long that it became obsolete before it ever entered production. I know, because the reason I got to see it was because my job at the time was to work on an upgrade to part of its avionics - upgrading the component from a dual Pentium system (note the lack of letters after that) to a more modern PPC system. This was, amazingly, the SECOND upgrade - the original system used i960 CPUs.

It was a shame, because the helicopter had a unique flight control system that made it exceptionally easy to fly. Supposedly, if you could fly a Cessna, you could practically fly a Comanche.

Also, the LONGBOW guidance section, which was created specifically for Comanche, survived a while longer until the functionality was sucked into other guidance sections. That GS was almost as impressive as the Comanche itself, with its own internal radar. It was a true fire and forget round.

[theodorespaghetti]

I work for Sikorsky and every now and then I run across Comanche files in the archives. It's an enigma that deserved so much more.

[ignitionfrn]

1:25 - Chapter 1 - Development
5:25 - Mid roll ads
7:05 - Chapter 2 - Specifications & performance
10:55 - Chapter 3 - Weapons
12:50 - Chapter 4 - Flaws
14:55 - Chapter 5 - Cancellation

[Tremadog]

I served with the Comanche in Operation Jungle Strike. I never did figure out how they stored the winch and 6 passengers inside though.

[jonathonspears]

The RAH-66. The best helicopter that never was. It was so close to being adopted it hurts. Imagine them in use today. Even by today's standards it is a marvel of engineering.

[CaliforniaReefRat]

Much as I enjoy Simon's documentaries and storytelling style, there are a few things here that I feel were glossed over or not well explained. I worked at Kaiser on integration of the HIDSS system for the Comanche (which he describes as 'akin to modern HUDs' and which would more correctly be termed an ANCESTOR of modern HUDs). The original primary mission of the RAH-66 was a scouting helicopter, coming out of the LHX program. It was not initially intended to replace all of the LHs in use at that time, and most emphatically neither the UH-1 (it's not a troop carrier), nor the AH-1 (it was not initially intended to be a high-volume of fire attack helicopter), but was far more in line with the OH-58 Kiowa's armed scout mission. Nonetheless, as the program continued, more and more mission creep expectations (and the experimental equipment to fulfill them) were piled onto the poor machine until (as Simon mentions) the engine was overtasked to provide reasonable agility to the overladen airframe. The much-mentioned ferrying requirement noted by Brooks was a ridiculous 'kill shot' to an already grossly wounded and limping program. The extensive development cycle DID, however, provide us with experimental test data on a variety of technologies which HAVE gone on to be refined into 'everyday military use' (the HIDSS being one of the most ubiquitous). By the time the program was ended (2+ decades after inception!), cheaper UAVs were rapidly ousting many of the scouting requirements that LHs once fulfilled. I could easily fill a dozen comments with the foolishness of trying to equip helicopters to engage fast-movers to provide air superiority in the US doctrine of combined arms. It isn't really their job, and trying to make it their job impacts their performance significantly (which are you more likely to use in a ground-support flight? Eight AGM-114s, or eight AIM-92s?).

[Pinkerton]

I had a scale model of this helicopter that i never finished. Quite fitting when you think about it.

[Russo-Delenda-Est]

I played so much Comanche 4 as a boy, had a joystick and everything, man that was a great game! Dodging SA8's, hunting MD500s, good times... I'll always love this helicopter just because of that. 🙂👍

[Rorschach]

Another trick used to reduce rotor noise was instead of the blades being at even angles, they were slightly asymmetric so that a standing wave could not be set up.

[Insulus]

as someone who used to live under a major air-traffic route for these helicopters, i can vouch for the Comanche's quietness. if a Chinook was a cannon ball, the Huey was a 7.62x51 and the Apache was an 7.62x39, then the Comanche was a 5.56x45 with a suppressor.

[nought]

The Commanche will live on in the hearts of all that played Jungle Strike.

[damongraham]

Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor did the RAH-66 very well. I loved the idea of a Navy version that could be launched and recovered by submarine.

[chrisgreener]

Im digging these “almost made the cut” aviation development episodes. Definitely keep it up! The more obscure the better - bell airacuda, yb-40, xr-11, cb42…

[lasskinn]

Comanche just makes me think of the pc games that were quite fancy for their time. The first one at least.

[ClintThrust-er]

That ferry range is absolutely mental, the pilot would lose his mind and become a nervous wreck after 58 A/A refuels.