UH-72A Lakota
Posted: 06 May 2017, 06:45
Time to reveal my current project - the American Eurocopter UH-72 Lakota. It was suggested by Brent as a subject that’s been overlooked, but would provide an interesting component of a new US Army helicopter project he is working on.
The aircraft is a militarized version of the Eurocopter EC145 twin engine helicopter. It was selected as the winner of the United States Army's Light Utility Helicopter program in June 2006 with a production requirement of 345 aircraft to replace ageing UH-1H/V and OH-58A/C helicopters in the US Army and Army National Guard units. 5 aircraft are also in use by the United States Naval Test Pilots School for crew training, designated as H-72 Lakota’s. 6 aircraft are used by the Royal Thai Army with a further 9 on order.
I’m treating the project as an aircraft only package, much like the Black Hawk, so that other designers can hopefully incorporate it into their own future projects like Brent.
At the moment, the 5 configurations I have produced all have the same external equipment, but this will change after the LODs have been produced. The aircraft in the screen shots are all FS9 models, but I will be producing FSX versions as well:
This is the regular drab painted example:
A variation on this is the Army Air Ambulance with 2 stretchers in the back:
Two interesting paint schemes are on the 2 and 3-tone camo “Aggressor” examples:
The 5th example is the USNTPS H-72, 5 of which are based at Patuxant River:
I don’t know yet if Hartwig would like to incorporate them as an update to his Pax River package, but I hope he will.
In addition to the clam-shell doors animation, all the aircraft feature hover-taxi combined with a vertical lift on the runway:
I’m also intending to provide a generic EC145 model and paint kits for this and all the military examples in the package. Next job though is to make the LODs, configure the different models with the right external equipment, duplicate the aircraft up and make the FSX versions.
In the meantime, I’m sure Brent will reveal more about what he’s doing with the aircraft in his US Army Rotary Wing Aviation topic.
John
The aircraft is a militarized version of the Eurocopter EC145 twin engine helicopter. It was selected as the winner of the United States Army's Light Utility Helicopter program in June 2006 with a production requirement of 345 aircraft to replace ageing UH-1H/V and OH-58A/C helicopters in the US Army and Army National Guard units. 5 aircraft are also in use by the United States Naval Test Pilots School for crew training, designated as H-72 Lakota’s. 6 aircraft are used by the Royal Thai Army with a further 9 on order.
I’m treating the project as an aircraft only package, much like the Black Hawk, so that other designers can hopefully incorporate it into their own future projects like Brent.
At the moment, the 5 configurations I have produced all have the same external equipment, but this will change after the LODs have been produced. The aircraft in the screen shots are all FS9 models, but I will be producing FSX versions as well:
This is the regular drab painted example:
A variation on this is the Army Air Ambulance with 2 stretchers in the back:
Two interesting paint schemes are on the 2 and 3-tone camo “Aggressor” examples:
The 5th example is the USNTPS H-72, 5 of which are based at Patuxant River:
I don’t know yet if Hartwig would like to incorporate them as an update to his Pax River package, but I hope he will.
In addition to the clam-shell doors animation, all the aircraft feature hover-taxi combined with a vertical lift on the runway:
I’m also intending to provide a generic EC145 model and paint kits for this and all the military examples in the package. Next job though is to make the LODs, configure the different models with the right external equipment, duplicate the aircraft up and make the FSX versions.
In the meantime, I’m sure Brent will reveal more about what he’s doing with the aircraft in his US Army Rotary Wing Aviation topic.
John