SKYNEWS 6 Pilot Flies Much Bigger Bird While In Iraq

NewsOn6.com

UNDATED -- The Black Hawk helicopters flown by SKYNEWS 6 pilot Will Kavanagh with the Oklahoma Army National guard in Iraq are vastly different machines than the one he flies in his "day" job.

The Black Hawk, officially known as the UH 60, is manufactured by the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation.  The first UH 60 entered service with the U.S. Army in 1979.

The Black Hawk replaced the famous UH-1 Huey that became an icon of the Vietnam War.  The Black hawk has four rotor blades, instead of two like the Huey and SKYNEWS 6. 

The UH 60's rotor disc has a diameter of 53 feet, 8 inches.  The rotor disc on SKYNEWS 6 has a diameter of about 33 feet, which is about 11 yards.

SKYNEWS 6 has one engine, while the Black Hawk has two.

The UH 60 is capable of a wide range of missions including air assault, general support, aeromedical evacuation, command and control and special operations support to combat and stability and support operations.

According to Sikorsky, the aircraft's critical parts and systems are armored or redundant, and its airframe is designed to progressively crush on impact to protect the crew and passengers.

It carries a crew of four, which includes two pilots and two crew chiefs. 

The UH 60 has a maximum gross weight of 23,500 pounds and can cruise at about 170 miles per hour.  It can carry up to 11 combat-equipped soldiers or 9,000 pounds of external cargo.  That's the equivalent of two full-sized pickup trucks.

The company has built more than 2,700 Black Hawks.