Watch This MH-60S Shear Off Its Tailwheel While Taxiing At NYC’s Wall Street Heliport

Updated Jan 15, 2018 2:22 PM EST

It’s not exactly clear when the video was shot, although considering the snow in the background it was likely quite recently, but it depicts a US Navy MH-60S from HSC-9 “Tridents” taxiing after landing at the Wall Street Heliport in downtown Manhattan. As the helicopter moves toward the terminal it makes a tight right turn near the corner-edge of the operating area, with the helicopter’s tailwheel impacting the perimeter barrier and shearing off. Thankfully, the Navy chopper plopped right down on its tail-boom and nobody was hurt with the helicopter remaining totally intact—minus its tailwheel.

The MH-60S, sometimes referred to as the Knighthawk, is a multi-role naval variant of the H-60/S-70 Black Hawk family of helicopters that carries out a variety of roles largely centered around the utility mission-set. These include vertical replenishment, general logistics, search and rescue/combat search and rescue, special warfare support, and anti-surface warfare among other duties. It differs from its MH-60R stablemate somewhat dramatically as the “Romeo” is far more missionized and elaborately outfitted for its anti-submarine warfare mission set and the basic airframe differs physically in some small ways as well.

One of the most visible among them is the fact that MH-60S has a tailwheel—similar to the traditional UH-60 Black Hawk configuration—while the MH-60R , like its SH-60B forbearer, has a forward-mounted (by about a dozen feet), shock absorbing, twin wheel, rear landing gear setup. This configurations offers better deck-handling and more margin for error when landing on tight pads aboard surface combatants. In this case an MH-60R would have made that turn fine.

The Wall Street Heliport gets quite a few high-profile guests , including frequent visits from HMX-1’s

VH-3D and VH-60N “White-top” helicopters, and MV-22 aircraft when the President is in town. Other distinguished guests and business power players use the pad regularly due to its close proximity to the U.N. headquarters and the center of America’s financial industry, along with various other forms of traffic including a lot of sight seeing helicopter operations.

Manhattan’s heliports are bustling places, especially since helicopter landings on helipads atop high-rises were banned following 9/11. Now just three helipads located along Hudson River directly serve Manhattan.

As for the MH-60S crew, it’s pretty safe to say that they probably wish they landed somewhere else on what ended up being a very rough day for them indeed.

This is a take from an experienced Army Black Hawk pilot who watched the video:

“That stuff happens but one thing I noticed is the crew chiefs, whose job it is to “clear” the aircraft left, right, up and down were not at the door gun stations (those windows are closed) but sitting Hollywood style on the cabin floor. It looks cool and feels cool to dangle your legs like you’re in Zero Dark Thirty but you can’t lean out far enough to clear the tail sitting there. Not to mention that rate of turn looks about twice as fast as normal. That was a simple turn that would have been prevented if the crew chiefs were just doing business as usual and not caught up in the fact that they were at arguably one of the coolest landing pads in the US.”

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2018年1月15日下午2:22

这段视频的拍摄时间尚不明确，但考虑到背景中的积雪，很可能是近期拍摄的。视频显示，一架隶属于美国海军HSC-9“三叉戟”中队的MH-60S直升机在曼哈顿市中心的华尔街直升机场降落后正在滑行。当直升机向航站楼滑行时，在作业区边缘附近急转弯，尾轮撞到围栏并断裂。所幸的是，这架海军直升机尾梁着地，机上人员无一受伤，机身也基本完好无损——只是尾轮掉了。

MH-60S，有时也被称为“骑士鹰”，是H-60/S-70“黑鹰”系列直升机的多用途海军型，主要执行通用任务，包括垂直补给、一般后勤、搜救/战斗搜救、特种作战支援和反潜作战等。它与同系列的MH-60R相比，差异显著，“罗密欧”MH-60S的任务更加多样化，装备也更加精良，更适合执行反潜作战任务，而且其基本机身在一些细节上也有所不同。

其中最显著的区别之一是，MH-60S 采用尾轮式起落架——类似于传统的 UH-60 黑鹰直升机——而 MH-60R 则像其前身 SH-60B 一样，采用前置（约 3.7 米）、带减震功能的双轮后起落架。这种配置在舰载机上操控性更佳，并且在水面作战舰艇狭窄的停机坪上着陆时拥有更大的容错空间。在这种情况下，MH-60R 完全可以顺利完成转弯。

华尔街直升机场经常迎来不少知名人士，其中包括HMX-1的频繁到访。

总统到访时，这里会停放VH-3D和VH-60N“白顶”直升机以及MV-22飞机。由于该停机坪毗邻联合国总部和美国金融中心，其他贵宾和商界要人也经常使用，此外，这里还有各种各样的交通流量，包括大量的观光直升机飞行。

曼哈顿的直升机停机坪总是熙熙攘攘，尤其是在9/11事件后，高层建筑顶部的停机坪禁止直升机降落。现在，只有位于哈德逊河沿岸的三个直升机停机坪直接服务于曼哈顿。

至于 MH-60S 的机组人员，可以肯定地说，他们可能希望在那天遭遇的非常糟糕的经历之后，降落在其他地方。

这是观看过该视频的一位经验丰富的陆军黑鹰直升机飞行员的看法：

“这种事时有发生，但我注意到一点：负责检查飞机左右上下方向的机组长们，并没有坐在舱门机枪位（那些窗户都关着），而是像好莱坞电影里那样坐在机舱地板上。像《猎杀本·拉登》里那样晃着腿看起来很酷，感觉也很酷，但坐在那儿根本探不出足够的角度避开机尾。更别提飞机转弯的速度看起来比正常快了两倍。如果机组长们能像往常一样工作，而不是沉浸在身处美国最酷的停机坪之一的兴奋中，那本来是可以避免的简单转弯。”

联系作者：Tyler@thedrive.com

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