N185CH
 

Any idea what this is doing flying around the UK this week? (Manchester, Tatenhill, Biggin Hill etc)

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b5deaa70ed.jpg

It’s not a Chinook!

It's not a Chinook; it only has one engine and is thus a CH 46 not a CH 47.

Two engines?

https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinq...umberTxt=185CH

https://aeropedia.com.au/content/kawasaki-kv-107/

Rather a big aircraft to be single engine.

No doubt that's why it has two licence-built CT58's then !

I'd like to have seen that! If I'd been paying attention at 10am when it departed Biggin, I might have done!

Looks doing a lift at Tatton Park?

Looking at the N number…..ex- Columbia Helicopters or perhaps a long term lease from them.
N185CH KV107 by swissheli.com
A Kawasaki built aircraft. CN 4003
It would be funny if is also the one used in the James Bond film “You only Live Twice”.

UPDATE: Found out it was not the Kawasaki/Vertol used in “You Only Live Twice” that was “ 1963-05-20 BV-107II-2 c/n 105
supplied in kit form to Kawasaki in 1962, built as KV-107II-2, c/n 4004, del KHI-Air Lift Inc as JA9503, 20May63.
used in filming James Bond 007 movie "You Only Live Twice"
w/o 05Aug67 with 1872 total flight hours. https://www.helis.com/pics/whodata.jpg
https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/55986
The Heliswiss N185CH is Kawasaki C/N 4003 the preceding one off the line.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d0c2dd517e.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a22f2ef543.jpg
Found these on the interweb.

chevvron: were you thinking about the S-61 (twin engine) vs S-62 (single engine) which otherwise also have a somewhat similar appearance to one another?

Lifting from Tatton Park to the nearby sewage farm...

Having visited JMSDF helicopter mines sweeping squadron in the 1980s, the KHI Vertol 107s were the current airborn minesweeping assets of the time. They were being replaced by a fleet of Sikorsky S-80M-1 (MH-53Es) at that time The 107s were sold world wide. I later saw one was part of a Swedish navy fleet. They were relatively low flight time machines as the JMSDF retired their aircraft after 5000 hours as part of the JMSDF policy. They were also meticulously maintained.

One of my favourite "what-if's" when I was younger - what if the UK had bought 107s (or Phrogs, or other mil versions thereof) as a means of using all those Gnome engines instead of the Wessex? All that useful cabin space, with excellent access - and no combining gearbox or engines pointed at some ridiculous angle down toward the ground requiring an equally-ridiculous nose-door. I'm sure the Phrog had its handling idiosyncrasies, but were they any worse than the ground-resonance-prone, over-powered but underperforming (especially at altitude) Wessex? I bet the seating arrangement was less likely to cripple the pilot, too.

Do I recall the CH-46 had something of a structural issue early on (I saw a macabre joke that an airborne CH-46 could potentially become a formation of two CH-23s...)?

Well not the same one in the Wessex perhaps.
Also known as Combining Gearbox as in the Chinook which has a similar design.

Quite right of course, SASless - but in my 6 years on Wessex vs 9 years on Chinook, I never heard of any crew wrecking a Vertol (OK, Boeing..) combiner whereas the one in the Wessex (and Lynx..) positively invited error from distracted aircrew. I wouldn't mind betting that the HYD systems on the Vertol design both carried on working in the event of a double-donk stop, unlike the Wessex.

The hydraulics on the 107 are driven by the front rotor gearbox

Tis always best to speak reverently of the RCAF SAR Labrador Helicopter variant.
The crews luved that machine.

Tread,

I met a very nice fellow who had reached senior management at one of the Gulf of Mexico outfits that had in his service in the US Navy been a pilot in just such a CH-23...and survived the event despite it having occurred in cruise flight. I rubbed his shoulder raw hoping such luck would rub off on to me.

I know him , and remembered the story of the HC-16 'Bullfrogs' CH-46E catastrophic failure believe he was Co at the time. He was also a Seawolf during Vietnam war, HAi Chairman for a while over a decade ago. Then ended up as VP sales of Bell mainly concentrating in the European and Mid East and then concentrating on Far east before leaving Bell.

cheers