Out of all of the aircraft I’ve ever had the privilege of working on, around or near, the one that is close to my heart is the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. I spent about nine of my best years as a technician and forward arming and refueling specialist on the very angry version of the Bell 206. It may have been smaller than pretty much every other military helicopter (minus the absolutely rabid Little Birds used by the 160th SOAR regiment) but they proved to be durable, capable and the pilots who flew them showed no fear whatsoever, even in some of the worst possible scenarios, and I’m proud to call many of them friends and brothers-in-arms. I’ll also tell you that even in my military-fit condition, that the Kiowa is a pain in the ass to work on, with tons of wiring, more black boxes than any airframe that size should ever need, and then there’s the thing on top of the rotor system. That’s the Mast-Mounted Sight (MMS), and it’s not only very specialized, it requires precision, the patience of a saint and the delicate touch of a heart surgeon to work on it properly without screwing something up.
This remote-controlled Kiowa Warrior is the most detailed one I’ve ever seen. The MMS actually moves around, the Hydra rocket pod and the Hellfire missile rack system look spot on. All of the visual details, from the wire cutters to the tail stinger, are accurate. In fact, the only thing that doesn’t look right is the distance from the top of the transmission cowling to the main rotor blades…it’s too much distance, but for a functional remote-control aircraft, this can be forgiven. All that’s missing from this build are unit markings spray-painted on by a bored E-4 and a little bit of hydraulic fluid seeping out of somewhere and it’d be perfect. Functional armament and a camera in the MMS would be pretty cool, too!
(Thanks to Brandon Vernon for the tip!)
I’d have to go drone hinting and really mess with someones mind when their GoPro picks up a tiny Attack helicopter closing in on them.
“Hunting”… Drone hunting.
You’d make it a drone and then go drone hunting with your drone? Drontastic.
Hey, it made sense when I wrote it!