AI BlackHawk

[dworjan]

Yessir, that is correct. And that reminds me. If you look at the two Romeos, you can see that there is a panel that can be installed to cover the sonobuoy launcher. I reckon that would be something that would be done with textures, but still worth pointing out so you don't have to try to figure out why the launcher doesn't appear in every picture.

Chris

[John Young]

That's really helpful, thank you. So, it looks like I can achieve an Navy "S" and an "R" from the Army models like this:

"L" becomes "S" + FLIR platform/ with or without the FLIR and an option for the high mounted stub wing and pylons. Is that the straight out high mounted stub or the upturned one?

"A" becomes "R" + under nose radome/other, low stub and devices, new tail gear and squared off Hstab.

Is that correct please?

John

[dworjan]

John,

Yes, the Sierra would definitely work best from a 60L. That's where Sikorsky started when they made the real thing. Here's a picture of one with the stub wings and the FLIR ball mounted:


I think a 60A would probably be the best place to start for the Romeo and Jayhawk, but the forward fuselage is different. There is only the starboard side door on the seagoing Hawks, and no gunner windows on either side. But beyond that, yes, the tail wheel is moved forward, it has the rectangular tail, and the radar is under the forward fuselage. And of course the different antennas. The Navy Seahawks have a fixed window on the port side, and this one has the port side weapons pylon (and upside down FLIR ball):


and the Coast Guard Jayhawks have two windowed panels on the port side which can open, and this one is also fitted with the port side weapons pylon (and nose weather radar:


I guess there's probably not a very easy way to do the Seahawk/Jayhawk family from one of the Blackhawks.

Chris

[Firebird]

Whilst the SH-60Bs may have gone from the USN are they, or close relatives, still active with other air arms?

[John Young]

Thanks Chris. I'm glad I asked these questions up front rather than trying to respond to requests after the models were built.

I think I can do the S, R and Jay with a bit of planning.

I'm away from home for a week from tomorrow and will not be able to respond to posts, PMs and e-mails during that time. When I get back I'll do the "A" model. Together with the "L" that I've done, I can move on after that to the Navy versions.

John

[dworjan]

You're welcome; I'm just glad I could help. When you get back, let me know if there's anything else I can do to help. There's a lot of 60s in the world, so these AI models are very welcome.

As a side note, I don't know how crazy you want to go, but LA County has a few 60's modified for firefighting with a tank underneath the belly and extra long forward landing gear legs.

Chris

[Victory103]

Whilst the SH-60Bs may have gone from the USN are they, or close relatives, still active with other air arms?

Others flying the S-70B-x series, which roughly equates to the SH-60B with different sensors. That has seemed to changed as the current RAN R's look more like USN R's. Chris has the differences down so no reason to re-hash that. Do notice on the main gear the fairings are different from the normal "A" model and the basis of the naval Hawks, like the "B". The airframes were designed for different tasks obviously so the USN asked for many changes for the LAMPS contract (SH-60B). Wikipedia is correct on this.

Other Army models in current use are HH-60A/L and HH-60M. Also the stub wings on the Army models are going to be longer than the ones modeled for the USN "S" models. These can take up to 4 tanks of 2 capacities, but we only ever flew with 2 outboard on the UH-60A/L.

Your Pavehawks would be a good basis for the special Army 160th SOAR Hawks, MH-60K.

[John Young]

Thanks Chris, the MH-60K looks interesting, particularly with a stub wing load. I'll certainly consider that.

In the meantime, I've just finished the basic "A" model. In fact I've painted two of them. In the screen shot below (FS9), the aircraft on the left is an "A" model painted especially for Lewis in a Puerto Rico Army National Guard scheme. The centre one is an "L" model and the one on the right is the second "A" paint - it's a rare sand scheme from 1991 that belonged to the 2nd Army Cavalry Regiment:



I think I'm going to try some stub wings with fuel tanks next before moving on to the Navy models.

While I'm making this post, I'd like to say a big thanks to clickclickdoh for contributing to the project - he's done a great job painting 94 Pave Hawks of various USAF units to supplement my 6 Lakenheath ones. He's done that for the FS9 and FSX models.

John

[clickclickdoh]

Army Hawks

[Victory103]

Not that I ever use emoticons, thought this guy was clapping hands, but both of you do deserve a standing ovation for the H-60 work so far. I'm still amazed at the attention to detail on this "AI" model.

[Ripcord]

Outstanding!!! I am dying to see how they behave in the sim.

[ahs06]

My dad was in the 326th/101st Airborne when they converted from UH-V's to brand new UH-60A's. He told me the UH-1 was designed to be worked on in the field and the UH-60 was designed for a hangar. I showed him a picture of the upgraded A model and he was shocked the A's were still around 30 years later. Cool to finally see it coming to life.

[VulcanDriver]

Israel operates 10 A versions

China operates 24 S-70C versions as part of the People's Liberation Army.

[Victory103]

My dad was in the 326th/101st Airborne when they converted from UH-V's to brand new UH-60A's. He told me the UH-1 was designed to be worked on in the field and the UH-60 was designed for a hangar. I showed him a picture of the upgraded A model and he was shocked the A's were still around 30 years later. Cool to finally see it coming to life.

I think the oldest one I flew was a 82' model. All "A" models now are called "A+" with the new 701D series engines, although that was the only performance upgrade so far as the US Army looks to convert all remaing "A" to "L" standard with a similar "M" glass cockpit. Externally, and especially for AI, not much has changed. I would agree about the maintenance, although the H60 is far more complex than the UH-1.

[John Young]

I've added the stub wings and tanks to a separate "L" model as another option (screen shot is FSX, but the FS9 version is done also):



Next job is the USN SH-60R, but I need a bit of help. Could people in the know tell me please:

1. What colour are SH-60R's painted? Is it one uniform colour over the whole airframe or are there subtle blends of tones, top, bottom and sides? I've tried to research that on the net but I get conflicting answers.

2. I came across some beautiful paint schemes while trawling the net, usually on the tail. Are those schemes generally only applied to one or two aircraft in the squadron or all of them?

3. The more usual weapons load-out I can see from photos on the net are 4 Hellfires on the left stub wing extension, although I have seen them on both sides. Is there a standard training load-out I could model or can I get a bit more exotic, ie 4 Hellfires on the left and a torpedo on the right? Just need to watch the polygon count, but I'll do an unarmed version as well.

John

[Joecoastie]

Lookin' good, John! Can't wait for the 'Jayhawks' !

[Firebird]

You know, John, you might just have a future in modelling.

[clickclickdoh]

2. I came across some beautiful paint schemes while trawling the net, usually on the tail. Are those schemes generally only applied to one or two aircraft in the squadron or all of them?

In most cases those are Boss birds or special events paints like the Century of Naval Aviation paints. The rest of the squadron may wear subdued versions of the Boss bird work, or smaller versions of it. Of course, you may also run into special paints for deployments, anniversaries and special events.

[Woogey]

http://www.flygirlpainters.com/#!gallery/galleryPage

Hello John, the standard U.S. Navy paint for Seahawks is a 3-tone top-mid-bottom scheme. The link above is the website of the lady who is responsible for every one of those "special" paint jobs. Below is a link showing the standard paint pattern for regular fleet birds also listing the FS colors. As previously stated, the "Special full color paints" belong only on the Squadron commanders aircraft. Each squadron usually gets only one color bird approved, this rule is sometimes bent in times of change of command ceremonies, or when transitioning to a new airframe variant. -Woog

http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/h- ... le01.shtml

[Victory103]

Like USN aircraft, corrosion control is a pretty big deal and one would never see a patchy paint job compared to Army Hawks. Woog's info is correct on all USN models, outside of the CAG birds. Pre-Flygirlpainter, we were limited on color and only did our CAG aircraft in full markings. Her paints are truly amazing and I was initially surprised they were authorized/funded.

Most of the R pics I originally saw only had the left stub wing installed, this is the same as the other Naval Hawks (B,HH,F) and Jayhawk. So I learned what the mount is on the right side of the Romeo now. The wing was plumbed for tanks and had the BRU-14 weapons racks for torps/Hellfires. The B model has a slightly different wing rack for the now retired Penguin missile (I would not worry about modelling this). When we initially got our Hellfire racks for the HH, we had a hard time getting training missiles, so normally only carried 2x CATM Hellfires. The pics I have seen on the R with both Hellfire racks full look to be static only, as the killer on the R is weight, it's very heavy compared to other models. Based on your poly count, 1 or 2 missiles would work. I have not seen any pics yet of operational squadrons flying with both torps and Hellfires, as these would be 2 different missions and again a weight penalty.