For the military aircraft people on my list...

[seawasp]

... can anyone tell me what those little oddly-bent things sticking up from the front of a Kiowa Warrior (OH-58D) rotorcraft are? They look, in the pictures I have, like tubes or pylons that have the tips bent over, right above the cockpit, and none of the diagrams I have tells me what the heck they are.

EDIT: Answered! They're the secondary FM antennae, with a wire-strike cutter between them.

Comments

[brooksmoses]

No idea about this case in specific, but little oddly-bent things sticking up like that on aircraft are nearly always Pitot tubes.

Edit: On the other hand, now that I've done an image search -- those don't look like Pitot probes; they're much larger than I'd expect, and the tips point backwards rather than forwards....

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Some helicopters have "wire guides" mounted on top so that if Captain "Chips" Pranger runs into an overhead power- or phone line while flying at low altitude the rotor shaft won't be damaged. That might be what you're talking about, especially since the Kiowa is a scout craft designed to spend much of its time flying at treetop level.

Other possibilities include radio antennae, or air/wind sensor mounts like the pitot tube mentioned above.

-- Steve really needs to brush up on this stuff; it's been ages since he paid attention.

[brooksmoses]

Also, in the pictures I found, it looks like there's a WSPS (Wire Strike) pole between them -- it's the angled-forward piece. Dunno if they're related to that or not.

[brooksmoses]

Aha! They're "secondary FM antennas". Found that by a Google Image search on "OH-58D antenna", and looking through the results to see if I found a photo of the things in question.

[dsrtao]

http://www.taiwanairpower.org/army/oh58d.html

Search the page for "wire cutter" -- there are upper and lower wire cutters, these appear to be what Sea Wasp are referring to.

[seawasp]

Yeah, I know about pitot tubes and as you say these looked WAY too large for that, and angle backwards.

The wirecutter explains the angled-forward component, but not the upright with bent tips gadgets.

[seawasp]

Not quite, but that page DID answer the question. They're the secondary FM antennae.

[cateagle.livejournal.com]

you'd be surprised at how much can festoon the outside of a modern military helicopter (now that I'm working with 'em at Sikorsky, it's still different than what I'm used to working on). My first thought would've been a wire-cutter on centerline, 'cause you really *don't* want a wire fouling the rotors, with various antennae elsewhere. Then again, sometimes the little widgets that stick up are surprisingly mundane, like the little bits thst stand up atop the engine nacelles on the AH-64.

[seawasp]

Oh? What division of Sikorsky?