CH-54 as a Rail Recovery Helicopter Idea

[Cobra]

Hey Guys, i was doing some Surfing on Google when an Idea Hit me:What If the CH-54 was used to Recover Broken Down Trains on the Tracks? I'm talking Trains like the TGV,Etc. Think it would Work? think it woulad also Work in a 'Gerry Anderson' way? Thanks for looking.Dan

[Hobbes]

Trains are too heavy. An ordinary passenger car weighs in the region of 40 tons; the CH-54 can lift around 10t.

[kitnut617]

I think you would need something like this, which IIRC could lift a C-130 load.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/0197393/

[Hobbes]

The Mi-12 lifted 40 tons during a record attempt, which would be enough for the example I mentioned. Problem is, quite a lot of rolling stock is heavier. Locomotives often weigh more than 100 t.

[Captain Canada]

Love the idea....swoop in, drop off the new engine, pick up the broken one....and off we go ! be quite the spectacle for the passengers as well.....and probably lead to acts of sabottage by folk like us, just so we could see it !

[Ed S]

Sounds like you could come up with a compound airship and helicopter like the Boeing Skyhook.  This is supposed to lift a 40 ton load.

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=comm&id=news/AIRSHIP07088.xml&headline=Boeing,%20Skyhook%20Team%20On%20Heavy-Lift%20Airship

Surely you can WHIFF that into something that could handle a 100T load.

Ed

[martinbayer]

The Cargolifter and Skylifter airship designs were both sized for payloads of about 150 metric tons:

http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/cargolifter/

http://skylifter.com.au/

Martin