Now What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

[SASless]

Every now and then you have to look back at some of the engineering marvels that probably should never have gotten off the drawing board.

The Aerostat developed for the US Forest Service by the US Navy is one of of those.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jENWKgMPY

[megan]

THE HELISTAT, A HYBRID A/C WITH 4 H-34 MAIN FUSELAGES ATTACHED TO A FRAME ALONG WITH A ZPG-2 HELIUM FILLED ENVELOPE HAD JUST COMPLETED IT FIRST HOVER TEST FLT SUCCESSFULLY AND LANDED. A PWR LOSS WAS NOTED ON THE NO. 3 HELICOPTER AND THE TEST WAS TERMINATED AND THE MOORING MAST CALLED FOR. PRIOR TO RE-MOORING A WIND SHIFT CAUSED AN UNCOMMANDED LEFT TURN WHICH THE PILOT COULD NOT CONTROL WITH THE FLT CONTROLS. WITH A TAILWIND, NO WHEEL BRAKES OR GND STEERING A TAKEOFF WAS ATTEMPTED. THE 4 MAIN LANDING GEAR WHICH HAD NO SHIMMY DAMPNERS STARTED TO SHIMMY. THE FOUR HELICOPTERS STARTED TO REACT TO THE SHIMMY WITH GROUND RESONANCE. AS THE HELISTAT FINALLY LIFTED OFF, THE FOUR INDIVIDUAL HELICOPTERS BROKE OFF AND FELL TO THE GROUND. ONE PILOT RECEIVED FATAL INJURIES, 3 RECEIVED SERIOUS INJURIES AND ONE MINOR INJURIES. THE HELISTAT WAS DESTROYED. THE PRW LOSS ON THE NO. 3 HELICOPTER WAS TRACED TO A MISSING THROTTLE LINKAGE CORRELATION PIN. WHY THE PIN WAS MISSING WAS NOT DETERMINED.https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20001213X34293&key=1

Surprised anyone survived.

[Gordy]

Y'all know I live in this world right........I give you this.....

The Old Forest Service and the Modern Forest Service decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the old Forest Service won by a mile.

The Modern Forest Service, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Old Forest Service had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the Modern Forest Service team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, Modern Forest Service management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, in the National Rowing Plan, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Old Forest Service, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager, none of them having any rowing experience.

They also implemented a new performance system that would make the 1 person rowing the boat more professional. It was called the “IFPM Rowing Team Program”, with meetings, classes and deadlines for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Old forest Service won by two miles.

Humiliated, the Modern Forest Service management abandoned the National Rowing Plan, laid off the rower not meeting the deadline, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Albuquerque Service Center as bonuses and the next year’s rowing team was out-sourced to contractors.

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Video not available in UK.

NEO

[Non-PC Plod]

OMG - I have seen Dick Dastardly and Muttley fly more sensible machines watching "Stop the pigeon"? as a kid!

[Glevum]

It is available on You Tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jENWKgMPY

[Senior Pilot]

Video not available in UK.

NEO

Try this copy; start about two minutes in 👍

https://youtu.be/qaUhdDLv8Qk

[212man]

I am also amazed that anyone survived, and really curious what the control process was - I guess that is what the 5th pilot was for? Were they all linked to one set of controls, or required each pilot to make inputs on command? Would make for interesting CRM! I can't believe it was 1986.......

[Lantern10]

I find it hard to believe anyone could think that it could work.

[etudiant]

Rather sad, the basic idea of offsetting the dead weight of the helicopters with the LTA envelope seems reasonable.
Obviously the engineering effort was cursory, else the shimmy issue would have been surfaced.
RIP to the people involved, they did their best!

[Agile]

I would have really liked them to make the dirigeable bigger and use negative pitch to stay on the ground,

[heliduck]

It’s a shame that they didn’t leave the tail rotors on the machines, they could have flown away when it all turned to ****.