Originally Posted by
Thrust Augmentation
This confuses me a bit, my naive view was that with a very reasonable power to weight ratio & at least what appears to be plenty of agility that it would be a contender of sorts?
The inner child say that it's it's the fastest & can go upside down - what else would you want.
I think it depends on how your criteria are interpreted. Normally, "hot and high" in aviation refers to high altitudes and above standard temperatures, but I can see that (in retrospect) you are probably using the term in a non-aviation manner and referring to 'fast and sporty'. So, in that case I accept the Lynx could be a contender! But, if you want to pick troops off a 15,000 ft mountain and it's +5 C (20 C above standard) then go for the Chinook!
One type that surprised me with its speed is the Mi35 (export version of Mi24 - Hind) - when flying EC155s in the Niger Delta, cruising at around 155 KTS TAS, the Nigerian Air Force Mi35s would overtake us with a significant advantage. Their ETAs suggested they were doing around 180 kts......