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Posted: 11/9/2001 11:12:19 PM EDT
Yes, the tea leaves say that the assembly of the CH47 is moving from Philadelphia to Mesa early next year.
The RAH66 Comanche isn't that far behind.
[img]http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL16/408600/423895/5128612.jpg[/img]
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 12:17:24 AM EDT
[#1]
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 12:33:48 AM EDT
[#2]
They had been publicizing all along here that the Comanche was to be built in Mesa.

Can the plant handle Apache, Comanche, and Chinook production under the same roof?
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 3:08:56 AM EDT
[#3]
I deal with Mesa every day. They don't understand their own helicopter, much less ours. They don't have a structures skill base either... I'm more worried about all the floor space available in St. Louis. Mesa should be worried too.
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 7:12:26 AM EDT
[#4]
Quoted:
I deal with Mesa every day. They don't understand their own helicopter, much less ours. They don't have a structures skill base either... I'm more worried about all the floor space available in St. Louis. Mesa should be worried too.
View Quote


... What do you mean? Mesa reports that they are in the black with all their military programs. In part because they don't have burden rates that would make a mobster blush. Sure, structures skills are scarce but contract chasers will, er, chase contracts....
As far as floor space, every nook and cranny is stuffed now in Mesa according to their employees. I hear they're building a million square foot hanger just to the west of Greenfield road next year and groundbreaking a huge building south of the tarmac now.
It was rumored that over the holidays several Apache fuselage subassemblies will migrate to that Mesa plant too.
Plus, you say:
“They don't understand their own helicopter, much less ours.”
View Quote


I thought you guys were all one company now, did something change?


Link Posted: 11/10/2001 11:12:12 AM EDT
[#5]
Any helicopter whose main blades [i]MESH[/i] is bad, very very bad. I don't even like riding in those  [:D]



Aviator  [img]www.milpubs.com/aviator.gif[/img]
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 11:33:15 AM EDT
[#6]
Quoted:
I deal with Mesa every day. They don't understand their own helicopter, much less ours. They don't have a structures skill base either... I'm more worried about all the floor space available in St. Louis. Mesa should be worried too.
View Quote


I was in a Chinook unit at FT.  Hood in the mid 80's.  we had Super C's that were slated for rebuild at Vertol.  As I remember they zeroed the airframe hours and remanufactured then to the D level.  My question is:

Are they building new Chinooks, or just remanufacturing the inventory?

Please advise.
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 12:24:09 PM EDT
[#7]
Quoted:
My question is: Are they building new Chinooks, or just remanufacturing the inventory?
Please advise.
View Quote


… Well, I don't think there doing "anything" real in Mesa now but I believe the plans are to manufacture CH-47SD new builds. Mesa has an accomplished remanufacturing effort with the Apache so I would assume that a reman effort for the Shithook might be in the cards someday in the future.
The latest version of the Chinook features a fully integrated digital cockpit (glass cockpit), bigger and more economical engines with long-range fuel tanks. I think they’re being fitted with full authority digital engine control (FADEC) finally.
Furthermore, harmonics control in rotorcraft technology has come a long ways in the past 10 years so they are incorporating the manufacturing process and cost saving of one piece machined structures (as opposed to sheetmetal and rivets). I would suspect that this significantly increases the life of the airframe. Of course if a potential foreign customer wants differing radios or electronics I imagine the Government (FMS) will take the request under advisement.
Then again, I’m just guessing. I work for Wal-Mart.
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 12:49:31 PM EDT
[#8]
I agree with Aviator.  Meshed blades not good..no, no, no.  

Got in a CH46 in Quantico during Basic School.  Sat in the seat that must have been mid-way between the masts.  On application of takeoff torque, the vibrations had one cheek torquing one way and the other torquing the opposite way.  It was like the fuselage was twisting and rebounding back at that one frame.  I preferred the rain of hydraulic fluid in the 53's and felt right at home in the UH1Ns I flew once I got out of flight school.

Mesh BAAADDDDD.
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 12:55:05 PM EDT
[#9]
The hardest job on the Chinook to me was changing the fuel bladder and aquiring the knack of changing the aft transmission filter. Tracking blades at full throttle/or 85%? was also exciting. Did you ever try to get the gold dust out of a broken windshield? Stability Augmentation System ports, fexpacks on driveshafts, dogbones, swashplate, actuators, Jesus nut, multiplier to get blades on an off, I remember some of the chores after 33 years. I loved flying in the Chinook, highest we ever got as I recall was around 12,000 ft, we had to clear artillery somewhere around the An khe Pass on the way to Pleiku. We were sent to help support the forth division, around Thanksgiving 1967. Man as I sit here and recall my time in Nam, and remember the great guys I served with, especially my friends that did not make it back, I'm not ashamed to admit to you I get moist eyed. God Bless America, my home sweet home..
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 5:05:01 PM EDT
[#10]
... above all, helicopters saves lives!
Link Posted: 11/10/2001 6:24:26 PM EDT
[#11]
If there were any plans for moving CH47, my organization would have been writing the orders to do it in 1999. When the 777 fixed leading edge left Philly for Scotland, it took more than 2 years for the transition. When the AH64D airframe came to Philly we made the move in 19 months. Moving a production line for an item as complex as a Chinook is no easy task. It's not cheap either. I was part of the transition team for the Apache and have seen the numbers.

As for the skill base, you will get the technical people to move, but the sheetmetal mechanics are another story. If a move was planned, it is far more likely production would go to St. Louis where they have plenty of floor space and a structures skill base in place.

Yeah, yeah, meshed blades suck and the aircraft vibrates a little (OK, a LOT), but if you want that howitzer up on top of the hill, you're not getting it there with a Huey.

Link Posted: 11/11/2001 2:39:21 PM EDT
[#12]
It's only partially true. Just the flight test portion of the Chinook is moving to Mesa.
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