Early OH-6/MD500 FLIR Questions
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Early OH-6/MD500 FLIR Questions
Folks,
I'm doing some research on a special ops MD500, circa 1988. This helo had a FLIR installed (amoungst a great deal of other interesting equip).
I was wondering if anyone has pictures of an early OH-6A / MD500 FLIR screen installation? It appears that the subject helo had a T-style instrument panel. Not many pictures out there of a FLIR display mounted with these panels.
Any information is greatly appreciated.
John
I'm doing some research on a special ops MD500, circa 1988. This helo had a FLIR installed (amoungst a great deal of other interesting equip).
I was wondering if anyone has pictures of an early OH-6A / MD500 FLIR screen installation? It appears that the subject helo had a T-style instrument panel. Not many pictures out there of a FLIR display mounted with these panels.
Any information is greatly appreciated.
John
If this was an aircraft operated by the 160th/SOAR, I suspect you won't get many folks offering up such info on an open forum.
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Also, for whatever it's worth, it's not a 160th aircraft, it's assigned to a more photo-shy "civilian" unit, at the time it carried registration N1111U.
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That's the one. The consensus is that the pods are combination fuel cells / planks for external riders. It also has provisions for fast-rope, the aforementioned FLIR some large, very non-standard antennas under the nose, radar warning receivers and a very early SATCOM antenna. Pretty unique for a "civilian" helo. Consensus seems to be that this aircraft belong to Project Seaspray (or one of it's other designations).
Anyway, if anyone has some pics of early cockpit mounted FLIR displays, I'd be most grateful. Supposedly the OH-6A (OVL) helos may have had a similar FLIR set-up so if anyone has pics of those instrument panel's, that would be useful as well.
Anyway, if anyone has some pics of early cockpit mounted FLIR displays, I'd be most grateful. Supposedly the OH-6A (OVL) helos may have had a similar FLIR set-up so if anyone has pics of those instrument panel's, that would be useful as well.
Last edited by Johnjay64; 6th Sep 2017 at 00:07.
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Hi John,
there was also this, "the quiet one" a specially modified Hughes OH-6A , although it's from an even earlier period than the 1988 you mentioned.
It was used by Air America for covert night operations in SEA and therefore featured FLIR as well.
The airspacemag article itself makes for pretty interesting reading and if you go into the picture gallery in the article , you will find a picture of the cockpit as well , showing the dual FLIR screens, one on each side:
Air America's Black Helicopter | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine
Also the VHPA. has a nice pdf with some more details about the FLIR and night flying training for/with that specific helicopter:
http://www.vhpa.org/stories/AAblack.pdf
Hope this helps,
Kind regards,
Vee1
there was also this, "the quiet one" a specially modified Hughes OH-6A , although it's from an even earlier period than the 1988 you mentioned.
It was used by Air America for covert night operations in SEA and therefore featured FLIR as well.
The airspacemag article itself makes for pretty interesting reading and if you go into the picture gallery in the article , you will find a picture of the cockpit as well , showing the dual FLIR screens, one on each side:
Air America's Black Helicopter | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine
Also the VHPA. has a nice pdf with some more details about the FLIR and night flying training for/with that specific helicopter:
http://www.vhpa.org/stories/AAblack.pdf
Hope this helps,
Kind regards,
Vee1
Thanks for the link, Vee1, I'll check with my dad and see how much of that mission he might recall. He was in the spook business in SEA during that time period.
See this video of N13SD - an ex-quiet one.
Bit of audio of it flying
Includes stills of it in original NOH6-P configuration with FLIR.
Also a walk around here.
Bit of audio of it flying
Includes stills of it in original NOH6-P configuration with FLIR.
Also a walk around here.