"AH-64 Apache" - the helicopter of the newest generation

The Apache AH-64 helicopter was designed to combat ground targets. His predecessor, AH-1 Cobra, proved during the Vietnam War that the American army needs machines capable of hunting for a secret enemy in difficult conditions and with active air defense. The main requirements for the new attack helicopter were powerful weapons, high survivability, the possibility of high-speed flight at low altitudes and a greater degree of fire control automation. Flight characteristics were listed separately.

In the preliminary competition for the state contract, the aircraft manufacturers Hughes and Bell won, who provided the models most satisfying the requests of the military department. However, Bell dropped out of the second round due to the fact that conceptually his helicopter was a modernized "Cobra", and the Pentagon needed a completely new car.

By the end of 1976, Hughes was commissioned to build a new strike helicopter for the US Army, and work began on the development of the project. They lasted long, five years, and were crowned with success. The new machine was approved by military pilots, and in 1093 began to enter the armament under the name "Apache". The helicopter is being built in Arizona, on specially constructed production sites for this purpose.

The company McDonnell-Douglas, famous for its "Phantom", during the reorganization bought Hughes along with her orders and production, and since 1984, already under its brand continued to build "Apache". The helicopter was ordered for both the army and the National Guard of the United States. Over the next ten years, more than eight hundred cars were built with an average cost of fourteen and a half million for each.

In the process of development work a lot of measures have been taken to protect "Apache". The helicopter is arranged very rationally, which makes it difficult to locate and defeat it.

Cooling of two interchangeable gas turbine engines XT-700 is organized so that in flight to minimize the heat trail, for which there is a mixture of exhaust with ambient air.

Noise reduction is achieved by using a cross-shaped steering screw equipped with blades located at different angles, so as to dissipate the sound waves produced by the engine .

Booking a pilot's cockpit and the main vital components makes it very problematic to disable it, and even more so to destroy caliber fire up to 30 mm. The survivability resource allows you to reach your base with one idle engine.

In turn, the complex of airborne weapons provides for various versions of external suspensions, as well as a turret cannon.

Variety and avionics, which is equipped with "Apache". The helicopter "sees" in the dark due to the thermal imager and laser rangefinder, it can itself cause radio interference and shoot infrared cartridges. The radar placed above the main rotor hub accompanies more than two and a half hundred targets simultaneously, notifies about the operation of the enemy air defenses, detects and classifies fixed objects.

In addition to the American army, the armed forces of many countries became the operators of this machine. Since 1991, there has been virtually no armed conflict involving the United States, in which Apache has not been involved. The helicopter proved to be very good, and the identified shortcomings served as an excuse for finalizing and improving the design.