Helicopter acceleration times
 

Just curious, am wondering if anyone knows fastest acceleration times from hover for various helicopters in the form of typical car-style measurements, such as 0-60 mph, 0-100 km/h or 0-54 knots.

I have scoured Google and found an estimate of 0-100 mph in 4 seconds for a Blackhawk from the ground. Sounds incredibly fast!

Empty weight: 10,624 lb (4,819 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 23,500 lb (10,660 kg)

lets go for crew and a bit of fuel 7,000kg.

Powerplant: 2 × General Electric T700-GE-701C turboshaft, 1,890 hp (1,410 kW) each

So 3,700hp and 7 tonnes.

500hp per tonne (or ton or short ton, who cares?).

Fast as ****.

A Chinook would show about 700 SHP per Ton for a nearly empty Aircraft.

Then there is the CH-53K in the works....which is a real Horse.

But I would put my money on an OH-6 Little Bird for being a real Hot Rod!

Yes another vote of the OH6, most will give you a good 500HP per ton (660 hp/ton for a light AS350).

I would think the winner lies into which aircraft can bring the thrust vector forward the fastest, specifically with proximity of the ground. that means low rotor inertia on the longitudinal axis (short blade and many them) and low fuselage inertia (short tail)

in the context of a dive you could get much better accel I am sure

Granted, from the hover.

That's the vid I was thinking of, Army!!! :ok::ok:

Why did they call an NH90 a Tiger??

Back in the 70s, there was a race between a Lamborghini Countach and a Mirage fighter. I was positioned about 100' ahead of them along the runway in a UH-1B in SAR config with drop tanks etc, to film it.

At "GO!" the Lambo leapt off the mark, with the Mirage a little slower to move because he wasn't able to light the burner while the brakes were still on. The Mirage caught the Lambo just before the 1/4 mile mark, doing around 160kt, we were left wallowing along after reaching 90kt with all that drag.

There were two helicopters racing in that video, first the NH90 and the second one was a Tiger.

skadi

Have you ever met a Pilot who flew the Hughes 500 D/E or later models that did not just love flying the machine?:ok:

SASless and I still do !:)

Thank you for the posts and videos, very interesting and very impressive. I had a feeling the 500 was a true sports car, have seen a few YouTube videos where they move off pretty fast.