{"id":5447,"date":"2013-04-10T22:47:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T20:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/?p=5447"},"modified":"2019-08-03T17:55:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-03T15:55:22","slug":"bell-oh-58-kiowa-helicopter-details-pt-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/?p=5447","title":{"rendered":"Bell OH-58 Kiowa helicopter details Pt. I."},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThis article is dedicated to another military helicopter. It was photographed at Brumowski Air Base Austria during a local\u00a0doors open\u00a0day last summer.\u00a0The\u00a0Bell OH-58 Kiowa<\/strong> is a family of single-engine, single-rotor,\u00a0military helicopters<\/a> used for observation, utility, and direct fire support – as we can find on\u00a0Wikipedia<\/a> web pages.\u00a0Bell Helicopter<\/a> manufactured the OH-58 for the\u00a0United States Army based on its\u00a0Model 206A JetRanger<\/a> helicopter. The OH-58 has been in continuous use by the U.S. Army since 1969.<\/p>\n

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1\/ Fuselage & Tail overview<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us start with some walkaround pictures. Closer look will be the\u00a0next step.<\/p>\n

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As you probably noticed, the helicopter<\/em> has the Gatling M134 Minigun system on board. Only one gun mount was used on the helicopter’s<\/em> left-hand side. It was not complete though – at least <\/em>the ammunition belt was missing.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The cabin front windows are so large and clear you can see inside a bit.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Yes I know – it is much more better to look inside through the opened cabin door:<\/em><\/p>\n

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Please do not miss the optical system which is partly visible in the cockpit (both upper & lower pics). <\/em><\/p>\n

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Two more shots depicting the Kiowa front fuselage. Please note two helicopter wire cutters, lights, aerials, probes… and other details here.<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

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This machine was displayed outside – so it was almost permanently surrounded by crowds of curious visitors. It was not easy to make a shot without having \u00a0someone disturbing in sight <\/em>\ud83d\ude00 .
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

We were enough time here in the front. Now let us walk toward the tail of the beast…<\/p>\n

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Now we are looking from behind. This is a helicopter tail boom with one vertical fin and two horizontal elevator fins – they will be shown in details somewhere in further articles.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Similar view again – moving my hands a bit up and shooting <\/em><\/em>\ud83d\ude00 … that light gray rod running atop the tail is the the tail rotor drive shaft. Please note the uncovered shaft <\/em><\/em>hangers.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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The engine cowl from behind with exhausts on top. Note the various shades of single camouflage colour here. The olive drab surface was wholeover <\/em>multicolor in real.<\/em><\/p>\n

The fuselage and tail skin riveting is well visible too. Those darker angulated areas are the mesh air vents.\u00a0The flat black “gap” on the roof is the flat black walkway panel.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

2\/ Engine details<\/span><\/h2>\n

Only the left-hand side engine door was opened. It was necessary to lift up the camera overhead to make these shots. At least the summer afternoon sun was helping me so the inside of the engine cowl was not in dark shadows.<\/p>\n

The side view at first:<\/em><\/p>\n

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And a closer look:<\/em><\/p>\n

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Now the camera is looking slightly toward the nose of the helicopter (lower picture). Please note the door structure, cowl door latches, door brace, cooling vent windows etc. etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

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And one closer look again:<\/em><\/p>\n

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I have got no more engine detail shots to offer you folks. If you have any, I would be pleased with you sending them to help me with upgrading this article. It may help many other modellers.<\/em><\/p>\n

3\/ Minigun details<\/span><\/h2>\n

This VIETNAM-era Kiowa\u00a0helicopter\u00a0was equipped with one\u00a0M134 Minigun\u00a0as stated thereinbefore. Minigun mount was only on one side of the fuselage. Having only one door reinforcing panel I suppose the Austrian Kiowas have always only this single left-hand Minigun mount.<\/p>\n

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This first (upper) shot is not the best one. It is a cut-out from one of the pictures used above. Following pictures all have larger resolution.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Are you thinking about how it looks like when this Minigun shoots? Very nice picture of an Austrian Air Force Kiowa shooting aloft can be found here<\/a>. The photograph is not so eloquent as the video footage I know … so here you are: This <\/em><\/em>short video is about helicopter Minigun training missions<\/a> and this one is documenting all main multi-barrel\u00a0Gatling <\/em>guns<\/a>. Enjoy both of them<\/em>!<\/em><\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this post, I\u2019d be very grateful if you\u2019d help it spread by\u00a0sharing it on Facebook<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Text &\u00a0Images\u00a0Copyright \u00a9 2013 by Marcel Meres<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is dedicated to another military helicopter. It was photographed at Brumowski Air Base Austria during a local\u00a0doors open\u00a0day last summer.\u00a0The\u00a0Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine, single-rotor,\u00a0military helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support – … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,3,21],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3opQF-1pR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5447"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9046,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447\/revisions\/9046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}