Odd Helicopter

[H8Monday]

This Heli belongs to a friend of mine. I'm always teasing him about his weird looking machine, and he always tells me that its not weird, that its a beautiful thing!
I caught it last night on its way to serve in the fight against the California fires.

http://H8Monday.smugmug.com/photos/212816664-L.jpg

http://H8Monday.smugmug.com/photos/212816656-L.jpg

[Karl C]

It's a Kaman K-1200 K-Max (http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=273).

[BoySpot]

Nice to see some shots of the K-Max. I always thought it was a neat machine but it didn't sell as well as hoped. They are talking about starting the line up again I believe, though. Let's hope so. It can lift a decent load! Hope he is having some success with the firefighting over there too!

[Andrushka]

I've been studying military aircraft for the better part of my life, and I have never seen this double rotor beast, its very cool and unusual and the pics are great too! What role does it play in the firefight?

[Box Brownie]

Nice images of an unusual looking helicopter but as much as I study the rotors for the life of me I can not 'see' how they avoid crashing into each other. It really does look as if on each rotation the blade(s) on each rotor will strike the other rotor???

[Karl C]

Nice images of an unusual looking helicopter but as much as I study the rotors for the life of me I can not 'see' how they avoid crashing into each other. It really does look as if on each rotation the blade(s) on each rotor will strike the other rotor???

Synchronized drive train, much like the CH-47 Chinook.

[madplower4]

I agree, I am totally confused as to how those twin rotors operate!!

I loved the second shot, can you tell me the exif info on that one.

Beautiful shots by the way, but I have to figure out those rotors!!!!:mad:

[H8Monday]

Here is the manufactureres page. it has a couple small shots of it, and you can see how the blades miss each other.
http://www.kamanaero.com/helicopters/kmax.html

Here is a Video of it working:

http://www.kamanaero.com/images/KMAX-ATW.mpg

[Box Brownie]

Having found another site mentioned this heli I think I understand now.

The rotors contrarotate and are very slightly angled outwards and down and as mentioned by Karl C they are synchronised to mesh together but unlike the Chinook the meshing is less than obvious.

The other info about this odd little heli is that for all its apparent small size it is a heavy lifter and the twin rotor arrangement apparently causes very low downwash under the aircraft making it ideal for aerial crane type ops.

But it still looks very strange :D

Edit - as I was typing H8Monday posted what I was looking for, videos. Off to watch them now!

[H8Monday]

I loved the second shot, can you tell me the exif info on that one.




I hate that my gallery host strips the exif....

the basics of the exif are:

Shutter: 1/80
Aperture: F/25
ISO 100
focal 22mm


Shot with my 30D and my Tamron 17-50

[madplower4]

Now I see, I didn't notice the rotors were tilted! About that exif info on shot number 2???????

[H8Monday]

Having found another site mentioned this heli I think I understand now.

The rotors contrarotate and are very slightly angled outwards and down and as mentioned by Karl C they are synchronised to mesh together but unlike the Chinook the meshing is less than obvious.

The other info about this odd little heli is that for all its apparent small size it is a heavy lifter and the twin rotor arrangement apparently causes very low downwash under the aircraft making it ideal for aerial crane type ops.

But it still looks very strange :D

Edit - as I was typing H8Monday posted what I was looking for, videos. Off to watch them now!


Yes, indeed it is in fact a VERY powerful little Heli. I have alot of respect for the work that this little one man machine can do. It is very economical to operate and Bryan has had alot of success with it... So I like to tease him about his goofy looking ship.

[JWright]

Kaman has been building helicopters with the meshed rotor blades since the late 1940's. Although it doesn't have the blades on it, you can see the family resemblance in this Marine OH-43D (HOK-1) at the Pima Aerospace Museum in Tucson, AZ.

http://JohnWright.smugmug.com/photos/154485186-M.jpg

[Karl C]

It's powerful because there isn't a tail rotor, which draws power from the engine. By eliminating the tail rotor, more power is available to the main rotor system.

[H8Monday]

What role does it play in the firefight?


Sorry I missed your question earlier... It will be used for dropping water on the fire. At sea level it can lift about 5500 lbs of water. The bucket weighs 400lbs making the useful lifting load almost 6000 lbs.

[spectre]

For its size...it is damn strong.

They get a lot of praise from their pilots...

[evorgsumaf]

This Heli belongs to a friend of mine. I'm always teasing him about his weird looking machine, and he always tells me that its not weird, that its a beautiful thing!
I caught it last night on its way to serve in the fight against the California fires.



Well if it looks funny or not, give him a GREAT BIG THANK YOU from those of us in Southern Cal right now. I have been lucky enough that my house is still about 15 miles from the fires. But those poor people down south of us... Again, tell him thank you for helping.

[PhotosGuy]

Nice shots of an ugly duckling. ;)

[Andrushka]

Sorry I missed your question earlier... It will be used for dropping water on the fire. At sea level it can lift about 5500 lbs of water. The bucket weighs 400lbs making the useful lifting load almost 6000 lbs.

oh thanks man - sorry i didn't put two and two together - didn't see a bucket :-) thought for a moment it could be for a command and control type operation... and it didn't look big enough to be dropping water, but all the double rotor info cleared it up for me, thanks guys!