Hello All,
Sincere apologies for the long lay off. Just a small post to keep the wheels of thought of my avid readers spinning with regards to a mysterious phenomenon I came across through a fellow military blogger currently based in Afghanistan. I am hoping for some interesting feedback.
Apparently this phenomenon occurs on some nights when a helo browns-out during landing or take-off due to static electricity generated by friction of dust and other debris brushing past rotor blades. However, it is still a mystery as to what governs the intensity of the halos and why it occurs only in some nights.
Quite interestingly British or American pilots had no fitting name to this breathtaking halo effect until MilBlogger Michael Yon who was embedded with the British Afghan forces quite recently came up with a handle after two soldiers who had laid their lives in Helmand province; Corporal Benjamin Kopp (American Ranger) and Corporal Joseph Etchells (British).
More images can be found here.
12 comments:
Awesome!!!! Looks bloody brilliant :)
thanks LR,
At first sight looked like the rotor tip experiment with scram jets. some early helo's, specially small recon types had them tested on - a small jet at the rotor tip!!
Those dust/ sand filters on the chinooks must be used over time!! fitting name for it too.
Hope to hear from you soon.
cheers.
correction, they were ramjets, not scram jets :) my bad.
Welcome back Ranger!
Since this topic is on sort of Afghanistan, why do you think so many of British/Americans die just by IEDs?
Hope to see more of you.
Hi LR
I work in aviation. This is a very common phenomenon for jet engines.. Specially during low Humid(dry air) nights u can see this clearly. It's more significant during engine accelaration to high power... It's mainly due to static discharge between blades and the air.. I never seen this on helicopters.. During take off specially engine uses max power so i guess it's the same reason as jet engines...
cheers
Hi LR
I work in aviation. This is a very common phenomenon for jet engines.. Specially during low Humid(dry air) nights u can see this clearly. It's more significant during engine accelaration to high power... It's mainly due to static discharge between blades and the air.. I never seen this on helicopters.. During take off specially engine uses max power so i guess it's the same reason as jet engines...
cheers
ජනපතිට හා ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්ට මරණය ඉල්ලා ඉන්දියාවේ පූජාවක්
Amazing pictures and cannot give a better illustration for a ‘halo’!
Definitely this is static charges.
Usually aero planes have static discharge wicks to dissipate static charges that build up on the plane
These static charges can be dangerous, especially if the crew try to land before the chopper lands
I found more discussion on the same effect here.
Thanks for sending me to the blog in mention. The article itself is interesting and the writer is very much worth reading... and not only that bit but any number of his blog posts are excellent.
For those who are interested in a well written and finely detailed battlefield account from an imbedded source who is not, like our good Lone Ranger, directly beholden to a chain of military command I can't recommend Michael Yon enough.
{[MI]}
Long Ranger,
When will you write more about the Sri Lankan Army and how they won over the tigers?
the SL newspapers have been quoting your blog in the past.. havent u come across any of those... Ive seen some in Lankadeepa sunday edition ... it said long ranger web adviyen... prolly urs
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