Hello Popular Mechanics readers, and thank you for visitng CraneDigital.com. An especially warm welcome to our awesome military visiting for the first time.

We're pleased to give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a work in progress: a 3D model of the AH-1T SuperCobra "Gold Cobra" helicopter, modeled, surfaced and animated in SoftImage | XSI.

The AH-1T+ SUPERCOBRA...
A LETHAL FLYING WEAPONS PLATFORM

This extremely high level of detail project is being built as a technical cut-away style assembly animation to demonstrate the power of this process for technical illustration & animation purposes. Plus, it's our idea of fun. Yes, fun. Enjoy.

AH-1T SuperCobra ordnance.

The AH-1T+ SuperCobra evolved from the earlier AH-1T (TOW) Sea Cobra, and cut a sharp silhouette with its sleek, stylized cobra painted in gold over the jet black finish of its compact fuselage. This new attack helicopter boasted two T-700 GE 401 power plants for increased speed, power and performance, and initial evaluations revealed that it could hit a top speed of 199 mph and sustain a level flight speed of 193 mph. The twin GE engines would let the AH-1T+ hover at 3,000 feet on a 91.5 degree day, even with a full load of fuel and nearly a ton of ordnance. The new SuperCobra had a 30% improvement in rate of climb; it could take off on one engine and still climb at more than 800 feet per minute. In addition to its awesome speed and power, the dual engine configuration increased crew survivability. Additionally, a crash-worthy fuel system, dual ALE 39 chaff dispensers and an infra-red jammer were also installed on the AH-1T+.

The deadly SuperCobra attack ship was little more than three feet wide, a tough target and a formidable weapons platform. Boasting tremendous firepower, the AH-1T+ could carry eight TOW II missles or Hellfire missiles for anti-armor missions, and up to eight Sidewinder or Stinger Missiles for anti-aircraft purposes. Aside from these missile types, the main armament of the SuperCobra was its M-197mm gun located in the nose turret with 750 rounds of ammunition carried under the cockpit. This gun could fire up to 675 rounds of standard ammunition per minute from its three barrels and could also use the Navy's Phalanx gun system ammo, a depleted uranium round similar in performance to the 30mm round used in the Air Forces A-10 tank buster. With the use of the SuperCobra's TSU (Telescopic Sighting Unit) or the HUD (Head-Up Display), each pilot had full weapons capability in addition to full flying control from either chair.

SoftImage | XSI 4.2 screen capture: the main hull of the aircraft in progress.

In 1986, shortly after its acceptance, the AH-1T+ was redesigned as the AH-1W SuperCobra. Before taking on the AH-1W's new "Whiskey" tag and more familiar camouflage scheme, a total of only 36 AH-1T+ SuperCobras had been delivered. As the AH-1W, SuperCobras would glorify themselves once again in the skies over Grenadad and Somalia, and in operations over Iraq throughout Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Today, further developments promise to extend the SuperCobra's operational life into the year 2010, proving, beyond all doubt, the long-range dedication to service behind Bell's original 1965 design.

© 1994 by Model Rectifier Corporation.

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