Aircrane to be delivered to South Korea, Nov, 1, 2022. Erickson photo by pilot Brad Pepper.This month Erickson Incorporated will deliver another Air Crane firefighting helicopter to the Korea Forest Service (KFS). The agency has at least half a dozen S-64 Air Crane helicopters.
In 2001, KFS became the first foreign government to purchase S-64 helicopters from Erickson. The recently delivered versions have composite main rotor blades and glass cockpits. Some of the S-64 helicopters in the KFS fleet have the optional front-mounted water cannon.
Aircrane to be delivered to South Korea, Nov, 1, 2022. Erickson photo by pilot Brad Pepper.
4 Comments
Those are metal blades. The composite blade is too heavy for an E model and bottoms out the damper and makes the machine fly like chit.
Not so. The blades fly great on the E and F, and significantly reduce vibration as was proven during flight testing. The blades come at a premium $ because of significantly increased performance (increased payload and fuel savings). The optional features purchased by the customer are dependent on how much government-funded allocation is available. In the photo you can see this aircraft also did not come with a sea snorkel, which is another option that costs additional $.
Koreans don’t use sea snorkel because they don’t fight fire w salt water. No blades don’t work on E/A models. Yes, work great on F/B.
Korea owns and operates sea snorkels whenever it suits their needs. Last year at KFS HQ when I was there, K8 (the last S-64 they bought) had the sea snorkel installed, and K6 did not.
Comments are closed for this article!