Weight of Wessex Helicopter Blade
Hi all,
I was just curious what one of the Wessex helicopter blades weighs. I helped unload 4 of these blades from storage in Melbourne, Australia, and they were a lot heavier than they looked. I don't know the year of manufacture of the helicopter in which the blades were originally taken from. But, I was curious to about how much one of those blades weighs, (and it's length, if anyone knows that too). I do know these Wessex blades had depleted uranium in the tips for weight balance. Thanks, Will69 |
Not sure about depleted uranium; always looked like lead wire in the tip and lead weight on the blade to me. Standard procedure back when was one bloke on either end to lift in/out of a box.
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Don`t think Uranium was around when WX blades were made...should have weight painted on blade root end; it`s about 26 1/2 ft long,and I think about 140 lbs....would hurt if it hit you..
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Spent 7 1/2 years working on Wessex HC 2, as a Rigger, UK, and Hong Kong,and the blades had Depleted Uranium as the tip weight.
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[QUOTE=sycamore;10577437]Don`t think Uranium was around when WX blades were made...
Oh but it was! The atomic program could never have happened without it. ;) |
I'm pretty sure the blades I unloaded had depleted uranium in them... The reason we unloaded them was for the army to come and take the uranium out of the blades!
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Definitely depleted uranium in the blades. Wessex Squadron of ours touched blades during a formation flight (both landed OK) and hours upon hours were spent searching the bush for the scattered weights, was involved in the SAR scramble. Depleted uranium was often used as a balancing medium in aviation, 747 being one of many.
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hours upon hours were spent searching the bush for the scattered weights |
Originally Posted by megan
(Post 10577837)
Definitely depleted uranium in the blades. Wessex Squadron of ours touched blades during a formation flight (both landed OK) and hours upon hours were spent searching the bush for the scattered weights, was involved in the SAR scramble. Depleted uranium was often used as a balancing medium in aviation, 747 being one of many.
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Did you make it easier by using a Geiger counter? Don't recall the crews involved John.. |
A bit of thread creep, but many years ago in Port Harcourt Nigeria, Barny Swinton Bland flying a Whirlwind series 111 on floats, went down with vibration from a lifting blade pocket. He was floating around in the swamps until we got a crew out to him and changed the blade.
The old blade was dumped, and everyone got back safely. A few days later, while flying over the same area, it was observed that the local village had retrieved the blade, and it was mounted on trestles and being used as a fish gutting table. Its probably still there. |
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