First off I should say that I understand that the Comanche program is axed.
Now I was reading in the official Army magazine "Soldiers," which one can find at the recruiting station and I was taken back by the distance at which this helicopter can fly. It said 1,260 nm. While an Apache can go ~380; Black Hawk ~375; and a MH-6 ~340. If that's true of the Comanche it's flat incredible. So I told my recruiter (a helo repairer) this and he said it was probably a misprint. But I had doubts because it read this way in both the 2003 edition and 2004.
Then I checked into this and found some terminology that I don't understand... saying that it has a 1,260 nm "self-deployment range." What does that mean?
Self-deployment range is the maximum distance that the aircraft can fly without need for refuel. You are right, that number sounds high, it may be that they are accounting for the use of external fuel tanks. It also may be a clean configuration (basic aircraft weight, no external or internal stores), or the fuel burn rate of the engine must be that good. A Blackhawk in mission configuration, (4 crewmembers with weapons and 11 fully equipped troops), burns on the average of 800 pounds of fuel per hour, if you use JP-8, that amounts to about 117 of the 359 gallons in the main fuel tanks. I hope this answer helps!
Yeah that helps me. After reading your post it seems logical to me that "self-deployment range" MAY imply that the Comanche is equipped in the external fuel tank configuation. Cause with only internal fuel it says it goes ~262nm, which seems right-in-line with what we expect of helicopters. And ~1,260 nm is on a level with airplanes. E.g. a C-23 Sherpa goes ~1,185 mi. A C-12 Huron goes ~1,280 mi. And I don't know what the range of the Apache is when it has the exterior tanks added. Perhaps it's close to this. It was a neat but expensive chopper project.
