Helicopter endurance
 

Just watched a film with military flying for five or six hours. This seems a long time to me for a rotary. Is there anything on the market or has there been anything with this kind of endurance? What has the longest endurance?

The original Sea King HAS1 carried 5,300lbs of fuel and burned 1,000lb/hr, the SAR option had ~7,000lbs fuel. No idea what they manage in the current iteration but I certainly had sorties of 5 hours in the HAS1, without refuelling.

Doesnt sound out of the question - The new Cabri G2 has an endurance of 5 hrs 40 mins Technical Specifications | Cabri G2 now available through Pacific Aircraft Sales, New Zealand?s exclusive distributor. and the good old 300 is touted as having 7.4 hrs endurance according to the sikorsky website.

Unlimited endurance with mid-air refuelling!

John, you had the luxury of being able to unstrap and go to the heads for a squirt.

The average chopper doesn't have that feature, so I know that I am limited to bladder capacity, and on a cold day inside a cloud after a preflight coffee and pre-prostate surgery, it was barely 2 hours!!:eek::(

With a old lady from 60's : Alouette II Astazou =2 people on board et more than 4hours of flight at Sea Level.....:D

if you climb a little be....5 hours..:D

Schweizer 300 with two tanks = 64 gallons or 242 litres. Burns around 35-40 litres per hour, so you get 6-7 hours endurance - even more if you take it easy. There were some remote cattle stations in OZ that used them for mustering for this reason, not sure if that's still the case. Ferrying them anywhere sucks because they are slow as snot, and with that kind of endurance you don't even have a good excuse to land somewhere and have a break.

So you saw the A25, did you? :E

Mate, even post surgery I can manage 4-5 hours on the m'bike :p

Fat tank CH47 with 3 bob tanks in the back is roughly 11 hours fuel. The daddy me thinks!

If anyone can think of an in service new technology ac (rotary) that can go 400nm each way on internal fuel, let me know. My employer will be very interested to hear....!

Thanks chaps, I guess it wasn't out of the question though with the stores these were carrying I think the director was off beam. Seem to remember the Wasp only having less than an hour to bingo. Wasn't in a position to know though.

Thanks for replies.

The U.S. Navy's 407-based MQ-8C Fire Scout Removed Prostate Vehicle reportedly has a 15+ hour endurance.

I/C