Rotorhub
AAAA 2010: Coaxial conversion developed for Kiowa Warrior
AVX Aircraft Company has publicly unveiled its novel coaxial modification to the US Army’s OH-58D Kiowa Warrior.
Displaying a model of a converted OH-58D at the Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA) annual convention in Fort Worth, Texas, the company is looking to generate interest in the solution, which it says could see coaxial Kiowa Warriors flying within 18 months of contract award.
AVX media relations manager Mike Cox told Rotorhub.com the modifications met all of the army’s performance requirements and the enhancements were ‘enough to make your eyes water’.
The conversion process removes the OH-58D’s sight, rotor head and blades, transmission, and tail boom and installs a coaxial rotor head and blades, new transmission, rotating controls and mast, and new short tailboom with fans and fan drive shaft.
AVX is looking for $30 million in funding for a concept demonstrator aircraft and Cox said the company was talking with the army, Department of Defense and Congress as well as several defence primes on a possible partnership programme.
It is envisioned that each conversion would cost between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, providing: increased hover performance; airspeed up to 120 knots; a marked reduction in noise due to the removal of the tail rotor; ability to do a nose-down approach thus reducing brownout; and greater range and endurance.
A formal comparative assessment of the capabilities of the OH-58D/AVX over the standard Kiowa Warrior has been carried out by Continuum Dynamics Inc at the request of AVX.
Although the company is pitching the modification as an interim solution while the army searches for a new Armed Aerial Scout (AAS), AVX did respond to the army’s recent request for information, offering OH-58D/AVX as a candidate aircraft for AAS.
Based in Fort Worth, Texas, AVX Aircraft Company was formed in 2005 with a number of engineers moving over from Bell Helicopter. The company’s president and chief engineer is Troy Gaffey, former senior vice president of research and engineering at Bell.
Tony Skinner - Fort Worth, Texas
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