Catching a Rocket with an S-92

[rrekn]

Anyone got more details on this one? Looks like a Bristow machine

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/rocket-lab-s-sikorsky-s-92-helicopter-prepares-to-catch-a-rocket-mid-air-185687.html

[ShyTorque]

Trying to capture a rapidly descending, low forward speed parachute with a helicopter isn’t a job I’d like to be doing for a living.

No doubt the crew have attended Monsieur Vichard’s course…. :cool:

[Bravo73]

Looks like a Bristow machine

It could well be an ex-Bristow leased aircraft.

[skadi]

Trying to capture a rapidly descending, low forward speed parachute with a helicopter isn’t a job I’d like to be doing for a living.

No doubt the crew have attended Monsieur Vichard’s course…. :cool:

They tested the procedure with smaller helicopter:

1 stage recovery test

skadi

[JohnDixson]

Shy, you are on point. Not long after I was hired on at Sikorsky in 1966, the USAF started the Mid Air Retrieval System project to retrieve Firebee Drones with their photos. I recall talking to Johnny Parker, one of the two test pilots doing the initial program out west and he told about an early instance where they had caught the parachute in that hook arrangement out the hack of the CH-3C, but then the load started oscillating and his words were-John, I knew we were in trouble when I could see our load out the front windshield.

Absolutely no connection with what they were about, ( I think ) but that test group from Sikorsky spent a long time out west ( Yuma?? ) and were afterward semi-infamous as the divorce rate among that bunch afterwards was 50%.

[SASless]

Old Trick....new Dog!

White Sands Missile Test Range used Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave Helicopters to retrieve ICBM Nose Cones using the Mid-Air Retrieval Method and later the US Navy and Air Force retrieved Firebee Reece Drones during Vietnam War days using SH-3 Sea Kings and H-3 and CH-53 Jolly Greens.

[JohnDixson]

There used to be a good online close-up video of the USAF doing a catch with their CH-3 but cannot find it anymore. It included the whole sequence wherein after the catch, the drone parachute was disconnected etc They fielded a unit and deployed to SE Asia and were successful doing that mission operationally.with some hundreds of catches as I recall being told.

[CopterDoctor]

Yeah the machine is an ex Bristow ,now owned by Rocketlab in NZ , planning to catch the rocket on re-entry and sling it to land to reduce damage to the rocket and allow it to be re-used again quicker and cheaper. I wish them luck but am a bit worried about the stress of the sudden increase in weight on the rotor and airframe.

[revit]

https://youtu.be/3LhBG-J7PDU

[Devil 49]

At my PHI initial training in 1983 and subsequently, I met pilots who had done this before for PHI.

[RVDT]

No doubt it is all "doable".

a customized Sikorsky S-92 twin-engine helicopter

At 173 miles offshore as quoted I guess that means a big fuel tank? Out and back, time on station, reserves etc. Or maybe the standard legs are enough as they are pretty long? GE engines after all are pretty frugal.

Can't help thinking it might feel a bit lonely out there at that distance! Although I think they will still have some sort of vessel out there in case they "miss" and still recover the booster.

Certainly be "interesting".

[wrench1]

At my PHI initial training in 1983 and subsequently, I met pilots who had done this before for PHI.
FYI: PHI did their first one off the coast of Virginia in the mid-1960s for NASA which then continued for several years thereafter. I had started in 1982 and there were a number of photos of those missions in a cabinet in the fixed wing hangar.

[Vortexringshark]

https://youtu.be/z_0xFVVfE9s

They then released it not long after as the pilot wasn't happy with something.

[albatross]

Didn’t the use fixed wing to do a similar recovery of film canisters from. the early recon satellites?

[SASless]

Both for Camera Buckets of Film returned from Low Earth Orbit and for the Firebee Drone using both helicopters and airplanes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9aA60KmXh0

[albatross]

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1480x2000/5c89d530_ad9d_4392_b99a_8d966e43a4ea_c4102bc1697b30765a9d869 2a89cca9e740602b1.jpegThen there was this system.

[DonJohnson]

Is it me or is does that look like a solid layer of cloud??? And they are VFR over the top??

[EMS R22]

Is it me or is does that look like a solid layer of cloud??? And they are VFR over the top??

Looked more like 4 oktas.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1480x2000/5c89d530_ad9d_4392_b99a_8d966e43a4ea_c4102bc1697b30765a9d869 2a89cca9e740602b1.jpegThen there was this system.
As featured in an early Bond - Thunderball iirc

[albatross]

As featured in an early Bond - Thunderball iirc
Well I remember that pickup at the end of “Thunderball”.
https://youtu.be/RVwRDtEEEes


Just FYI that ad appeared on the back cover of Flying magazine just a couple of years ago.