Originally posted by Nico
Heh? I've personnally seen a Hokum ( at Le Bourget ) doing barrel rolls and loopings. I have yet to even hear about the Apache doing that.
As for the dual rotor thing, many russian helos use that setup, I believe that if it was that horrible they'd have given up on it.
Um, Venom, you might want to watch any American airshow where they fly an Apache. They do the barrel rolls, loops, backward somersaults and stuff, like... um... all the time. I grew up on US Army bases and watched them flying the things constantly. They can't FLY upside down, but basic aerobatics is pretty easy.
You know, the US Air Force kept the SR 71 in service for how many years, even though it was a maintenence nightmare? See, sometimes, the utility of the craft outweighs the maintenence problems in the long run. That's probably why they're willing to use the dual mast in so many models: the inherent stability and agility (which, indeed, can be formidible) outweighs the problem the maintenence crews might have when they're working on it.
