Super Stallion WHIF: Next-gen Pave Low?

[Diamondback]

Between here and ARC, I've seen a couple builds of WHIFfed armed Super Stallions, and saw mention of a concept when the Osprey was hitting severe technical difficulties for a CH-53E-based Pave Low (one of which inspired the ARC WHIF's start).

The WHIF concept for discussion... What If a single prototype was built and then Boneyarded once the V-22 started to make headway again, only to be transferred to a DARPA-backed private R&D shop with access to the entire unclassified or publicly-acknowledged American/Allied military-technology catalog and some serious private capital for upgrades? What kind of old obsolete gear would you rip out and what newer, more advanced systems would you replace it with? For example, I'm considering dumping the old FLIR in lieu of a LITENING G4 system de-podded and integrated into the airframe, and replacing the ALQ-144 Disco Balls with an uprated derivative of the AAQ-24 Nemesis DIRCM that would have missile-shootdown capability. The old APQ-128 TFR would also be replaced with an AESA-based system capable of TF/TA and multi-target Search/Track in both Surface and Air--essentially a hybrid of the F-22, F-35 and existing systems, and it'd use Phase Cancellation systems for both audio and "active" radar stealthing.

Who wants to bite? I should warn y'all, any ideas posted here are subject to inclusion on my build I'm planning... in my case, the plan is to graft on A-10 wings to make it a Special Ops "Hind From Hell", a rotary-wing omnivore that can hold any target Surface or Air at-risk without anybody knowing it's there until it's too late.

[jsport]

A-10 wings   , but how about a mast mounted omnidirectional multi-lens site? IR warning would could be small similar to F-35 apertures while the AESA's could be conformal on three sides. Larger than DIRCM directed energy either wing mounted or omnidirectiona under fuselage would be flashy as well. Maybe a enlarged  disco ball alluding to an evolved directed energy capability.

[Captain Canada]

Neat idea. More squares and angles especially around the cockpit section. BERP blades would be a must....

[jsport]

Speaking of blades what about full CRW?
McDonnell Douglas & Boeing canard rotor wing (CRW) concepts
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,775.0.html

Boeing CRW Transport is Pave Low looking.

[Diamondback]

Interesting ideas... extra bulges are mostly the opposite direction I intend to go, but since I intended this thread to be idea fodder for all CH-53E WHIFfers, I gotta say it has potential. Part of my plan is "clean-lining" the aircraft as possible, fairing things into the skin panels to reduce both drag and... well, I plan an Adaptive Camo system like the Aston Martin Vanquish in Die Another Day--yes, this ship has a Cloaking Device, so to speak--and the other idea was that when the wings aren't fitted it routinely disguises itself as a vanilla Navy or Marine transport.

Full disclosure: I'm a writer on a Criminal Minds fanfiction forum, and the bird--named Blackout, and with a full AI built in, think "Airwolf meets KITT"--and the moonlighting ex-spy-turned-Fed who built and flies it are two of my characters. My crewmates don't know the difference between a Gulfstream and a Lear--hell, one thought you could safely land a G550 on a football field before I bombarded her with manufacturer tech data--so I'm basically stuck having to build a model of the bird I'm writing as a visual aid... which I'll start a separate Build Thread on later once it really hits construction.

[jsport]

Understand the sleek speedy stealth goal so would recommend  joining secret projects so you can view the Boeing Canard Rotor Wing (CRW) transport as it is exactly a sleeker H-53. CRWs would generally almost double conventional helicopter speeds. Would send, but site doesn't allow attachments.

[jsport]

Hope the crafty is moving along..Hope I didn't say anything inappropriate. If so many apologies. 

[Diamondback]

Nope, just that planning is very slow--and I wanna have the plan almost perfect before I start carvin' up my expensive Academy CH-53E, ya know?

Current thinking is I'm gonna skip the AAQ-10 FLIR and replace it with the imaging head off a LITENING G4-- "rest of it's inside the skin". If I can find specs on how they test-launched Sidewinders from CH-53s, I'm thinking to add a few pylons for those... and I have a contact on ARC who slung wrenches on PL's when I was born that might let me pick his brain a little.

Also, been working on quite a few other projects, like a model of the F-106 a prof once flew when he was CO of a fighter squadron.

[jsport]

Nowadays AAMs can be housed in pods for stealth such as for latest FA/-18 proposal or inside the fuselage like the F-15 Silent Eagle.

[Diamondback]

True, and the AIM-120C is probably fairly low-observable by itself even external. Maybe the AIM-9X too... the major reason I was thinking fuse pylons would be to save wing HP's for offensive weaponry, and most rails that can take Sidewinder can take AMRAAM too.

Big worry was surfaces for "optical stealth" (which I assumed the beast would have to jettison wings before it could cloak, the ideal AdCam shape is basically a box)--radar I figured could be handled between composites and "phase cancellation" like the Rafale is alleged to have, possibly also a plasma-generator system like some newer MiGs and Sukhois are said to carry, and if necessary just outright brute jamming power. (As I wrote it, the thing was named Blackout not after the PL in Transformers, but for having the ability to black out some entire small countries at full power.)

[jsport]

Turbine powered ECM pods can produce mucho power but full plasma shielding /stealth requires a big power source. No free lunches in natural physics. Alot of speculation about Russian plasma etc..
PCancellation is another issue.
Jettisoning wings seems not as appealing as a shrouded HPs.

[jsport]

Any cool pics of the creature?

[Diamondback]

No construction updates--I'm still on pencil and paper planning. Well, Notepad and Excel for reference data and possible systems, and CAD for designing specialized adapters... REALLY wish somebody made an A-10C wing conversion. Most of my time of late has been writing, research and still s-l-o-w-l-y working on that F-106 I'm building as my prof's old bird... trying to find data on 318th FIS command-stripes was a bear, and now that I have the stripes' geometry roughly figured out I gotta figure out how to build masks and templates, along with find placement landmarks and known reference measurements for 'em.

I'm starting from the inside out, and before I even START there I got a boatload of detail parts I gotta order, not to mention designing the new wall-to-wall-glass-dash. (Hence my "Any Avionics Geeks?" thread--I really need help cracking the puzzle of what all MFD's are suitable for this and their dimensions.) Still debating whether to build it before or after the 4-engine upgrade, since for that I'd need to redesign the oil-cooling system to make room for #4 opposite #3...

Funny thing, one of the gals on the site I write this monster for poked her head over today and saw the Super Blackhawk, and she was IM'ing me about "Oh my God, TWO Blackouts?!" LOL

[jsport]

Thank you for the update..would vote for 4 engine. 

[Diamondback]

If I can figure out how to mirror-image the parts for #3 and build it without having a Psychotic Episode... this is my first other-than-Straight-From-Box project.

Update: think I have the redesigned instrument panel mostly figured out. Posted in my Avionics thread, so in the interests of brevity I'm linking to it.
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,34843.msg554952.html#msg554952