The Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion: The Helicopter That Broke All the Rules

what happens when you take a rotary aircraft to defense budget and lots of steroids well you get the Sikorsky ch-53 super this helicopter is the US Marine's heavy lift Cargo Helicopter it's got an impressive service record as it has been used in more than just the utility roll that it was originally designed for as far as helicopters go it's got a bit of a physique that looks like a prisoner who was sentenced to 20 years hard labor and then never missed a gym Sash on top of that but like most prisoners sadly it's got a troubled past [Music] [Music] the super stallion is capable of transporting troops and supplies from ship to shore at a rapid Pace while also being compact enough to fit onto a ship it plays a key role in amphibious assaults and Logistics and look I could already hear you in the comments you scrivia what's the big deal Simon the v22r spray has a greater travel range and it can fly faster take it easy man that has also got cool engines that can rotate so there now this is an argument that gets beaten by pure strength as the Osprey only carries just over a third of what the super stallion can carry in terms of troops and in terms of weight currently it is the U.S Marine's vertical takeoff deadlift Champion it has a lift so powerful it can carry all other US Marine aircraft except the UKC 130 because that would be ridiculous but this Beast can produce 7 500 horsepower that also has mid-air refueling capability which allows it to Traverse the globe longer therefore delivering more Marines and more equipment all around the place yes from combat to Logistics or to humanitarian Aid the super stallion is a jackable trait so stick around to find out more about this extremely powerful helicopter what it's accomplished and the genius Sikorsky who's also dubbed the father of helicopters so let me introduce you to today's sponsor Squarespace if you're looking to build your brand and grow your business online Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for you with 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Hugo Sikorski was born in 1889 in the Russian embar in a city called Kiev which is now the capital of a country called Ukraine the irony an intelligent young man Sikorski was obsessed with all things Aviation he was fascinated by count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin who created you guessed it the rocket night create the Zeppelin it's right there in his name isn't it and especially he was fascinated by the work of the Wright brothers Sikorski studied at the naval war College in Saint Petersburg for three years following that he returned to Kiev to study at the Polytechnic Institute for two further years the college actually still stands to this day the only thing is that now it's been renamed the Igor Sikorsky Cube popular Technical College in 1914 he was awarded a degree in engineering by the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute he worked as a chief engineer on the bolshoy balteski which it was the first four-engine plane even going so far as to be the test pilot on its first flight so you know glad you're about a designer who really backs his bull when World War ones declared sikorski's planes were used as bomber aircraft for the Russian Empire for which he was awarded the cross of Saint Vladimir in 1919 Sikorski emigrated to the United States due to the fact that Russia had been ravaged by World War one and gone a revolution and then a civil war so understandably it wasn't exactly a great place for aircraft design once in America with the help of several ex-russian army officers they formed the Sikorsky Aero engineering company and the rest as they say is history wondering that of course he'd kept nurturing was building a helicopter and over the course of his life he kept jotting down ideas for one in 1939 he finally conquered this nagging itch with the vs300 it had the Revolutionary idea of an added tail rotor it was hailed as the first successful helicopter and by 1940 it was used as the template for all single rotor helicopters with World War II still raging and the Cold War just on the horizon the US government essentially said yeah we'll have that have some money what followed was the creation of the Sikorsky R4 impressive for its time it was a two-seater three-bladed machine with a top speed of 90 miles per hour and could climb to an altitude of 12 000 feet the British were also very keen on it and after acquiring some gave it their own designation the hoverfly although a bit difficult to fly it did see upper operational use in the last stages of World War II where it was mainly used in logistical roles and for search and rescue in the Pacific Theater however it evacuated multiple wounded soldiers from the front even sometimes coming under Fire from Japanese troops the skorsky company would go on to make planes helicopters and and now in the present-day drones but if you were to research their products helicopters are the most numerous and successful export one boast the Sikorsky company can shout though is that if you Google the oldest helicopter still in use it's the Sikorsky h-34 needless to say when it comes to helicopter renovation the Sikorsky Aero engineering company now Sikorsky aircraft is definitely the champion for the test [Music] the ch-53 series project goes back as far as the 60s when American intervention in the Vietnam War was rapidly taking off however the helicopter's actual track record starts much further back than the jungles of Vietnam in 1935 who else but the Germans would manufacture the first helicopter for military use the fockovolf fw-61 was the first prototype with the idea that improved variants would go on to be used in the reconnaissance role sadly all well sadly for the Nazis at least get her or else it was not on par with the Sikorsky R4 so this concept didn't really deliver much other than a demonstration in Berlin as Can Be Imagined helicopter research and Engineering was rather difficult back then plus the Allies were you know bombing the crap out of Germany moving on from World War II though the Americans would utilize the later produced helicopter the Bell age 13 to great effect during the Korean War transporting wounded soldiers back to mobile Army Surgical Hospitals or Mash just after the Korean War the Algerian war broke out and the French who were fighting to keep control of Algeria were big on using their Sikorsky h-34s to airlift French troops into the Algerian hilltops and fly out their wounded on medevacs where the helicopter got its biggest break was during the Vietnam war sort of proving our Point here Vietnam was also known as America's helicopter war and it saw the large-scale use of helicopters in combat as oh well as in multiple other sporting roles in fact when you say the name of the country Vietnam your mind probably conjures up images of Huey helicopters flying above jungle canopies with the song Fortunate Sun laying in the background the uh-1 Iroquois or Huey it was the Workhorse of the US military in this era however although it was a Workhorse with Incredible work ethic it did open the door to bigger ideas for America's War Machine as good as the Huey was it was only likely armored lacked the ability to lift heavy cargo or deliver large amounts of equipment and look just in case you didn't know helicopter Pilots don't like making multiple trips over hostile areas with no nothing more than half an inch of ceramic armor plates in the cockpit for protection moreover the soldiers riding in the back like it even less as all they have for protection are their flak jackets and also if you didn't know not a lot of American GIS were much of a fan of wearing flak jacket in the first place as they were cumbersome and nobody wants to add extra thick layers in a hot climate learning from the French's experiences in Algeria the Sikorsky h-34 would be in service in Vietnam but would see limited use as they were considered too vulnerable to enemy ground fire with the introduction of the Huey however it became the primary helicopter for the US military during the Vietnam war the good old Huey did prove to American and by extension the rest of the world that helicopters do play a critical role in military operations this fact spurred on the drive to create bigger and better helicopters to summarize when a country's Armed Forces catch on to new ideas they catch on Big Time as although helicopters were in wide use with the more powerful countries of that era helicopter henceforth became a standard piece of kid for armies around the world a word on the Super Saiyan's predecessors would be that there's also the sea stallion's cousin the mh-53 paved low some could argue it's a variant whilst others would argue that it's a different animal altogether originally designated the hh-53b super Jolly Green Giant it was brought in during the Vietnam war to replace the original Jolly Green Giant the hh3e this older model was for the more sneaky be heat type of missions like combat search and rescue infiltration and other clandestine operations the super jollies took pride in the fact that they could operate at night no matter the weather they would take part in the famous operation Ivory Coast in which American Special Forces attempted to raid on Sante prison camp in a desperate bid to rescue American pows who were being badly treated unfortunately however the operation would ultimately fail in total 17 hh3es would be lost during the Vietnam conflict 14 to enemy action and the remaining three to accidents now despite all of this the helicopter did leave a good impression with you US Special Operations and in 1979 the upgraded Pablo 3 was introduced to the USAF it was for its time the most technologically advanced helicopter in the US Military and to understand why this was is simply down to the aircraft itself you see a big heavy duty helicopter that was originally designed to lift and carry bulky equipment was now assigned to work with small groups of Special Forces teams using such a large vehicle platform meant there was tons of space and room to fill with all of their cool kit it was also fitted with the latest technology terrain following and terrain avoidance radar GPS with projected map display and integrated avionics allowing precise navigation just to name a few of the cool toys further proof that other countries were watching the prowess of the helicopter can be found following the Vietnam War when another superpower Russia used its Soviet helicopters to great effect in the Soviet Afghan war countries around the world were following suit by scaling up their vertical takeoff and Landing capabilities so well like it or not helicopters were here to stay [Music] foreign [Music] in 1962 the U.S Marines began the hhx competition ajtech stands for heavy helicopter experimental a number of designers put forward their product in the hopes of winning in the end the Sikorsky s-65 emerged as the winner closely beating the Boeing virtual heavy-lived variant of the ch-47 better known as the Chinook the sikorski's Prototype now designated ch-53ac stallion first flew in October 1964 and two years later production of a fleet of sea stallions commenced the ch-53as were fitted with two General Electric t-64 ge6 turboshaft engines with 2125 kilowatts of power these engines could produce 13 600 RPM in 1967 the US Marine Commanders listed a number of requirements they wanted for their new helicopter one fairly glaring requirement was that it could fit onto ambibious Warfare ships this seems like a fairly obvious requirement if it's going to be used by the Marines but the issue lies in another requirement in that it must be be able to carry 1.8 times more than the S80 and this highlights a bit of a problem if you want a helicopter to be able to lift more then it will probably have to get a lot bigger this means when Landing one especially on an aircraft carrier it becomes a huge headache not to mention the aircraft carriers themselves which despite their size are not flush with space in this sense an aircraft carrier is sort of like a sardine can ideally you need to be able to pack as many aircraft onto a carrier as possible to make them as effective as they can possibly be importantly each aircraft type plays a particular role so if you start losing some aircraft to make room for others then you lose the Tactical abilities of what that other aircraft can provide you see aircraft carriers are basically floating moving around air bases in which militaries can project their influence and launch missions from but they do not have much space Also in terms of the sea stallions use space must be provided for Marines and all of their equipment not to mention any land-based vehicles that they need as well so with all of that in mind anything that is based on an aircraft carrier cannot be a hog of space and with that List of Demands from the Marines the Sikorsky Engineers had to put their thinking caps on having to keep the super stallion Dimension similar to its predecessor the designers put their thinking into raw power adjustments were made redesigning the transmission to make it stronger the low tail design was now changed to a larger vertical tail with the rear rotor tilted so it could provide some lift the main changes though are adding a seventh rotor blade and a third engine you see a helicopter's rotor blades give it lift thus allowing it to gain altitude and the third engine creates more power to the rotor the resulting stronger engines power more rotor blades thus enabling a stronger lift a new digital flight control system was included to prevent the pilot from putting too much stress on the aircraft and an extra six feet and two inches was added to the fuselage survivability was always at the Forefront of military designer's mind the super stallion was originally designed to carry 55 troops but had to cut that number down to 31. if you're wondering why it's due to the fact that it was fitted with crash attenuation seeds the same seats the Osprey uses of course this is to protect the troops traveling in the bag from a crash or hard land but the safer seats did mean more weight and space taken up so sorry to the extra 24 guys who have to ride in a different helicopter however losing the 24 troops meant it could still externally carry slung loads of up to 16 330 kilograms the aircraft requires a crew of five consisting of two pilots one crew chief also doubling as the starboard side gunner one port side gunner and lastly a tail Gunner its length is just over 99 feet and its height is 28 feet the max takeoff weight is about 15 000 kilograms and the main rotor diameter stretches out to 79 feet with a maximum speed of 200 miles per hour and a top range of 620 miles it's got an excellent operating scope as for armaments it's got 50 cal BMG machine guns two mounted in the windows and a third mounted on the ramp facing the rear as for costs was twenty thousand dollars an hour to keep it in the air and it requires 44 hours of maintenance for every flight hour all that said you might be impressed but its sling ability is where it really shines the Marines wanted every lift capability and they got it the ch-53e is is able to carry the light armored vehicle lav-25 or the 155 millimeter m198 Howitzer including their ammunition and cruise not only does the Super Stallion can lift any aircraft up to its own size this allows the Marines not only great maneuverability getting too far away and hard to reach places but now they can bring their big fire power too no longer would Marines be operating alone with no heavy equipment it's called the super stallion for a reason the US Navy and Marines loved what they saw and put in an order for 177 of them today U.S Sailors nicknamed the Navy variant hurricane maker and the writer for today's script who served it in Afghanistan saw all of these fly overheads and it was close enough to blow all of his food that he was eating into his face foreign service in the 1980s the helicopter has been the Workhorse to the U.S Marines and the Navy but although its primary job is logistics it's actually got a few War Stories to Tell as well if peacekeeping missions the super stallion would unload Marines in Lebanon and Beirut in October 1983 a terrorist truck bomb exploded killing just under 240 servicemen helicopter provided important combat support during this operation moving forward to the 90s when the Somali civil war broke out two Super Stallions loaded with a combination of 60 Navy Seals and Marines accompanied two Seaking helicopters successfully evacuating 281 U.S and foreign Nationals from the U.S embassy in Mogadishu in what was called operation Eastern exit the embassy workers were transported to safety aboard U.S warships and the real happy ending is that one extra evacuee would be added to the group as one of the evacuees would give birth aboard the ship in June 1995 an F-16 pilot Captain Scott a Grady was shot down over Bosnia and would be rescued by two Super Stallions and in the 2000 Super Stallions would fly 550 miles to secure the first land-based Camp Rhino at the start of the Afghanistan Conflict for the second Gulf War Super Stallions would play the major role of being the backbone of the U.S Marines by hauling supplies and ammo to the forward units of the invasion whilst moving casualties to the rear and again cutting its teeth in Special Forces missions by lifting Special Forces operatives to rescue captured private Jessica Lynch Jessica was serving in the 507th maintenance company where her Convoy was ambushed by Iraqi troops she was badly injured and later captured by an Iraqi Army regiment she was subject to torture at the hands of her captors luckily a tip came from an Iraqi lawyer Muhammad who a reported she was being held at a hospital in nasseria at night members from joint Special Operations task force one two one swooped in and rescued her and also recovered the bodies of eight other Americans although covered in glory the super stallion also has a darker past during its service it's been plagued with a series of accidents that would cause a tragic loss of life in total 132 Personnel would die in accidents aboard the Super Stallion and other variants its Navy variant the Sea Dragon has the highest accident rate of the U.S Navy more than twice as many deaths as any other aircraft in fact it's had so many accidents that an independent investigation was set up between the years of 1984 and 2019. in 2005 it even provoked a lawsuit where it was cited that 16 in-flight fires or fire incidents were caused by the number two engine the lawsuit also claimed that no Crews were instructed on emergency techniques and no changes have been made to the engine hopefully since the incident the U.S military has implemented safer measures [Music] the super stallion has had a long and fulfilling career but now the Pentagon has brought in its replacement so sadly the career of the super sedalian is nearing retirement with the introduction of the ch-53k King Stallion which is already being phased in with small numbers being in service the new U.S military flying powerlifter claims it can lift three times more than that of the super stallion's lift capacity and it will have renewable aspects enabling her to stay in service for longer with claims like that the King Stallion will one day transport current serving Marine Sons but to mention the fact that it's now so heavy duty that military hierarchs claim it could take a lot of punishment from any action before being downed however all of these good attributes of course come at a cost it's an amount that even exceeds the price of the F-35 making the King Stallion the most expensive aircraft of the U.S war machine and that's where we end today's video thank you so much for watching leave a like subscribe and I'll see you next time [Music] next time [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 495,135

Keywords: interior helicopter cargo hold, heavy-lift helicopter, helicopter aerial refueling, ch-53k king stallion, helicopter recovery, helicopter reassembly, sikorsky aircraft, aerial refueling, heavy-lift aviation, ch-53a, ch-53e, ch-53d

Id: E_siecWwT7w

Length: 21min 3sec (1263 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023