RAH-66 Comanche 

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If you've read "The Design of Design," by Dr Fred Brooks, you know he was invited to a meeting discussing the requirements for this chopper. He was escorted to the meeting by a Marine Corp general who had extensive experience with helicopters. When they were talking about the weapons capabilities, he general was quite happy. When they got to the part of about the ferry range, the general stated that they just killed it; there was no way to have the ferry range AND everything else. Ergo, he knew this was going to be cancelled before they built the first prototype.

I served with the Comanche in Operation Jungle Strike. I never did figure out how they stored the winch and 6 passengers inside though.

So happy to see this video. My father was one of the engineers at Sikorsky who worked on this. I still have the commemorative coin he got for the "First Flight"

My favourite unit in Command and Conquer: Generals were Commanches. A horde of them flying into an enemy base was a sight to behold.

The RAH-66. The best helicopter that never was. It was so close to being adopted it hurts. Imagine them in use today. Even by today's standards it is a marvel of engineering.

I had a scale model of this helicopter that i never finished. Quite fitting when you think about it.

I met one of the test pilots for this platform in 2018. He was constantly depressed that it didn't make it to full production. According to him it was a perfect blend of an Apache and a Little Bird. Hard to see/find and very potent. I kinda remember him saying it would be a perfect vanguard attack help and great for contested airspace because at the time it was the only US helo being designed to have air to air capabilities. The Zulu Cobra does that now.

1:25 - Chapter 1 - Development 5:25 - Mid roll ads 7:05 - Chapter 2 - Specifications & performance 10:55 - Chapter 3 - Weapons 12:50 - Chapter 4 - Flaws 14:55 - Chapter 5 - Cancellation

Years ago, before it was cancelled, I got to see one of the two flying prototypes of the Comanche. It really was a groundbreaking helicopter in a lot of ways, but it was in development so long that it became obsolete before it ever entered production. I know, because the reason I got to see it was because my job at the time was to work on an upgrade to part of its avionics - upgrading the component from a dual Pentium system (note the lack of letters after that) to a more modern PPC system. This was, amazingly, the SECOND upgrade - the original system used i960 CPUs. It was a shame, because the helicopter had a unique flight control system that made it exceptionally easy to fly. Supposedly, if you could fly a Cessna, you could practically fly a Comanche. Also, the LONGBOW guidance section, which was created specifically for Comanche, survived a while longer until the functionality was sucked into other guidance sections. That GS was almost as impressive as the Comanche itself, with its own internal radar. It was a true fire and forget round.

I work for Sikorsky and every now and then I run across Comanche files in the archives. It's an enigma that deserved so much more.

To tell you how close this airframe came to being in service, I did my ground training for the AH64D in the building that was built to teach the first group of aviators in the AH66 Comanche. There were transmission models for the Comanche on display in the common areas, and of course pictures of the Comanche everywhere. We were told that had the decision been made to move forward with production we would have been among the first groups of aviators to be trained in the new airframe. That was in 2006.

Comanche just makes me think of the pc games that were quite fancy for their time. The first one at least.

The sexiest, most badass helicopter ever built. It's a tragedy that it never saw action.

The Commanche will live on in the hearts of all that played Jungle Strike.

I played so much Comanche 4 as a boy, had a joystick and everything, man that was a great game! Dodging SA8's, hunting MD500s, good times... I'll always love this helicopter just because of that. 🙂👍

Another trick used to reduce rotor noise was instead of the blades being at even angles, they were slightly asymmetric so that a standing wave could not be set up.

Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor did the RAH-66 very well. I loved the idea of a Navy version that could be launched and recovered by submarine.

It was like 2 decades ahead of its time...... Just like the B-2, F 22 , YF 23, Seawolf Submarine, and now The Zumwalt and the F 35.... LITERALLY EVERY TIME US MADE A COOL NEXT GENERATION TECH, IT WAS JUST TOO GOOD THAT THERE WAS NO ENEMY THAN CAN STAND AGAINST IT, AND HENCE THERE WAS NO ACTUAL NEED....

I remember seeing it fly one night when I was stationed at Fort Hood. It was the weirdest sounding heli I have ever heard

Please make a video on Brahmos missile or ISRO

Im digging these “almost made the cut” aviation development episodes. Definitely keep it up! The more obscure the better - bell airacuda, yb-40, xr-11, cb42…

Much as I enjoy Simon's documentaries and storytelling style, there are a few things here that I feel were glossed over or not well explained. I worked at Kaiser on integration of the HIDSS system for the Comanche (which he describes as 'akin to modern HUDs' and which would more correctly be termed an ANCESTOR of modern HUDs). The original primary mission of the RAH-66 was a scouting helicopter, coming out of the LHX program. It was not initially intended to replace all of the LHs in use at that time, and most emphatically neither the UH-1 (it's not a troop carrier), nor the AH-1 (it was not initially intended to be a high-volume of fire attack helicopter), but was far more in line with the OH-58 Kiowa's armed scout mission. Nonetheless, as the program continued, more and more mission creep expectations (and the experimental equipment to fulfill them) were piled onto the poor machine until (as Simon mentions) the engine was overtasked to provide reasonable agility to the overladen airframe. The much-mentioned ferrying requirement noted by Brooks was a ridiculous 'kill shot' to an already grossly wounded and limping program. The extensive development cycle DID, however, provide us with experimental test data on a variety of technologies which HAVE gone on to be refined into 'everyday military use' (the HIDSS being one of the most ubiquitous). By the time the program was ended (2+ decades after inception!), cheaper UAVs were rapidly ousting many of the scouting requirements that LHs once fulfilled. I could easily fill a dozen comments with the foolishness of trying to equip helicopters to engage fast-movers to provide air superiority in the US doctrine of combined arms. It isn't really their job, and trying to make it their job impacts their performance significantly (which are you more likely to use in a ground-support flight? Eight AGM-114s, or eight AIM-92s?).

The AH-56 and RAH-66 helicopters are my two favorites. Shame that both never saw production.

Interesting thing is that Sikorsky - company that created Comanche have recently developed "Raider X" helicopter that looks nothing like a Comanche, but their competitors in the FARA program - Bell company, have recently developed "360 Invictus" helicopter that looks very similar to RAH-66 Comanche.

That ferry range is absolutely mental, the pilot would lose his mind and become a nervous wreck after 58 A/A refuels.

Please do a video about wankel rotary engines! I think redesigning what we think of an engine is quite the megaproject especially because they are slowly dying out due to lack of development. I am a huge enthusiast of these unique pistonless engines!

The thing about these projects, even if they don't get adopted, most technologies developed I imagine are recycled and reused for other endevours. Can't help think how many things in the Comanche might've ended up in Boeing's drones and others.

I find it hilarious that one of the newer helicopters that are being designed to possibly replace the ones currently in use with the Army look a lot like the Comanche.

There was a nice PC game based on this aircraft. Voxel graphics at the time were great 👍

I used to play comanche 2.0 as a kid on my dads home office PC in the mid 90s and thought this was the coolest helicopter in existence and was very disappointed when I found out the project had been canned

My wife's father was a design director of flight controls on this helicopter. Such a sad day when they cancelled it.

I requested this years ago. Thanks for getting to it. This is my fav helicopter.

Man I use to play Comanche Gold by Novalogic back in the early 90’s some of the best days in my life and I’m an old fellah. I was disturbed when they shit canned the Comanche and I always thought that it became a secret helo for the special forces. I was fun to fly as a gaming aspect. Please bring the Comanche back !

Had the pleasure of studying it's structural components, very advanced materials, way ahead of its time, and decades away from adversaries technology

Back in the eighties I worked at a United Technologies facility. We had a full scale mock up in one of our factory floors. It was very impressive and had a sign that touted "The Fighting Spirit of the Comanche Warrior" I always wondered what happened to that helicopter.

Brings back Comanche Gold memories 🥲

I owe my career to this little helicopter. I was hired to support the RAH-66 program at Sikorsky in '96.

I was sitting on a hill not far from where the national guards version of the night stalkers fly out from and suddenly a helicopter was less than 100 yards from me as it went up over the hill I was on it was flying so low it had to pull up to miss me and my car in probably 10 seconds it was gone and you couldn't hear it at all. Crazy

Simon, just a quick thank you for all your great videos!! You're one of my favorite places to be on RU-vid.

From the first time I heard about this chopper 30 years ago, I loved the idea of it..So sad it never went anywhere..

I really enjoyed this one (no surprise there). What was a surprise was that my favorite part of the video was at the end where you talked about the good things that came from the program that are used today.

That was the game that got me to get a joystick growing up. Such a cool helicopter.

14:49 Simon: The Aircraft was expected to wear so many hats.... F 35: Ok, I'm gonna go and have a heart attack.....🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The stealth craft with sound suppression is no joke. I was at the Oregon coast next to an army base. There is an access road to a beach. I was in a Plymouth Sunfire and there was no safe place to park without risking getting the car stuck, so I flipped it around to leave. Suddenly all sounds were suppressed and the air became more dense. I looked around and saw just above the trees an Army helicopter. I had to tell for my girlfriend to even hear me, but it was because of the compressed air not carrying sound.

When I was at Ft Lewis, they brought a prototype Comanche to our unit for a shakedown. Our pilots were excited to get them.

I was an Apache mechanic and remember them telling us this will make the Apache obsolete. Couple years later just kind of stopped hearing about it.

Probably would have been worth mentioning the similar Eurocopter Tiger program begun around the same time that did successfully produce a stealth light attack/recon helicopter entering service in 2003.

Can you so a video on the MH-6 Little bird? Honestly one of my favorite helicopters next to the Comanche

I worked on the program in the mid nineties from the Army side. Even then, I thought it was obvious that the program would never go into full production. It was the wrong aircraft, with many issues that made it impractical to field with the capabilities, maintainability and numbers needed. The final cancellation was a good day for Army Aviation. though we still haven't seemed to learn from our mistakes, as now we don't even have the Kiowa Warrior.

My first introduction that I remember of this chopper was from the old American Chopper TV show where they built a custom chopper style motorcycle that resembled the helicopter.

Had a Huey fly over my neighborhood a few days ago, made me genuinely happy to see

These bad boys were the darlings of the video game community back in the early 90s. Jungle Strike, LHX Attack Copter, Commanche vs Hokum, etc. It was hard to find a military video game that DIDN'T have one of these choppers in it in some way. Oh, high the mighty have fallen...

My former produce manager had a Comanche hat and when I asked him about it he spoke glowingly about the aircraft, it's always sad to see the project never went into production

Great video thanks for sharing 👍🍻

I loved playing Comanche 4 on pc back in the day!

This breaks my Marine Corps heart ! This was a truly AMAZING weapon.

I wondered what happened to the Comanche. The only time I had heard of or seen it was on an episode of American Choppers in the early 2000’s where they made a motorcycle to resemble this aircraft. The Comanche was displayed and flown during the show.

When I was in AIT at Ft. Rucker AL I got to fly in 1 of the 2 Comanche simulators. The guy kinda got pissed when he figured out I wasn't a pilot after I crashed in about 30sec.

I was in blackhawk technician school when they were taking volunteers out of our classes to train up to work on the RAH66,declined because I wanted to become a flight crewchief.I always wondered what happened to those guys,if they got brought back to hawk land or just recycled into the army.

as someone who used to live under a major air-traffic route for these helicopters, i can vouch for the Comanche's quietness. if a Chinook was a cannon ball, the Huey was a 7.62x51 and the Apache was an 7.62x39, then the Comanche was a 5.56x45 with a suppressor.

Yay!!! I was hoping this one would be covered but totally forgot to recommend it in the past. Since this one is done, I remember you doing the Tu160, maybe one on its supersonic predecessor of the Tu 22, please 🙏

Simon's beard game is on point. I need.

I saw one of these flying on South Fort Hood at Operational Test Command. It looked amazing and was so sleek compared to the Blackhawks.

The F-117 development actually started in the late 1970s, long before the Commanche program so I'd say the technology was adopted from the F-117 and applied to the Commanche. The F-117 was also retired in 2008, but the same technology would have been applied to the F-22 Raptor and F-35 JSF.

been waiting for this

I had a PC game in the windows 95/98 days named after and staring this Stealthy beast. It was so good and so cool. Love the look of it, beautiful.

Actually played and done a video on the Comanche game, love this heli, best there was, like the yf-23 that never was

all adds to a learning curve, no loss!

It's funny that back in the day, with similar stealthy prototypes like the SR-71 or F-117, this would have been totally a top secret black project until long after they were in production. Whereas the Comanche was so well-known, even while in development, that generations of kids knew all about it from video games, but it was never even completed.

i was watching your videos when i wanted to watch a comanche vid and this pops up. nice!

I read something about this machine probably 20 years ago...and I don't know if I didn't fully understand what I was reading or if something was misleading, but I thought it was a NEW helo! Every few years I'd remember about it and wonder when it was going to come out. Learning that it came out and died 15 years before I ever read about it almost makes it more amazing, b/c back in the early 2000s it still seemed like a futuristic machine!

I lived about 200 yards away from where then-President Bush held a campaign rally in Erie, PA in 2004. The Secret Service and local police blocked off most of the streets, so I went outside just to have a look at what was happening. It was then that I saw an RAH-66 Comanche hovering just above tree level. I've been around helicopters quite a bit during my time in the military. They're usually pretty noticeable. I couldn't even hear this thing's rotors. I rushed inside to get my camera, but by the time I returned it had departed, presumably to somewhere else over the rally site. I'd never seen one in the wild before.

I got to see one of the prototypes being built. It was cool seeing it loaded onto a trailer bound for Florida for flight testing.

Love it. One of my favorite helicopters !

Have you ever considered doing a project video on the Paddle Wheel Aircraft carriers of WWII, where great lakes steamers were bought and converted into flat tops for pilot training?

i’ve seen the one in the museum in person. it’s pretty amazing to look at

At the Long Beach Airport, there was one parked in the "abandoned" aircraft part of the tarmac and was visible off the 405 freeway for many years, it may still be there, I just haven't looked for it in years.

It would have been funny if you used the Airwolf reference instead of Magnum PI but it Was still funny

Yeah it kind of reminds me of when I was in the army they had this Air Defense Artillery weapon called the Sergeant York but it turned into an expensive nothing burger.

The best man at my wedding was one of the last to pilot this bird.

A master of the universe has the prenup in his arsenal, he senses the perfections of cold wars, his heart is never heavily laden, he values combined arms.

Attack helos will make way for drones, at least in contested airspace. Cheaper to operate, much longer endurance, no pilot at risk. Sure, theyll keep their niche in less dangerous environments, but overall, it's not that bad that the US could invest in drones instead of paying for hundreds of Comanches until they get smacked somewhere like the Ka-52.

I love this Helicopter, it’s a shame it wasn’t adopted.

I got a chance to walk around one of these at a college campus in NY during the summer of 2000. Amazing helicopter and I was bummed when the program was canceled.

As an Apache Mechanic, I’m a little biased but this would have been awesome to see

Man, I remember this thing. I had a friend in HS who was obsessed with them and joined the Army just to become a pilot of one. Obviously it never came to be and he ended up just being a heavy machine gunner.

I remember being a little kid seeing these flying around Florida when I was visiting family one of my cousins was a consultant for Lockheed

In retrospect, though as stated here many of the technological advances helped in the development of the other helicopters, the role of a manned reconnaissance helicopter has been replaced by unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs). Put simply, it is no longer necessary to risk a pilot for a mission that is easily done without one.

Now they got the "Invictus" attack helicopter 🚁🚁 it looks sick and "Task & Purpose" did a video of the concept!💯💯😆

Growing up, this was the coolest thing in the skies in my eyes. I was heart broken when it was cancelled. As a side note: It's kinda crazy to think that when we reduce the order, we end up spending damn near the original order amount anyway... we could have all the F-22s and still have a burned hole in our pockets.. but we'd have a bunch of F-22s. Not only that but we'd have the infrastructure to upgrade them cheap and not have to do this whole NGAD project.

It was also a fun video game series back in the day. I played a lot of Comanche 4 around the early '00s, although I was a kid who rarely got any new games at the time, so maybe that colored my view of it somewhat.

The video seems to suggest that the F 117 borrowed elements from the Comanche. Problem is, F 117 was developed almost 15 years earlier...

Brings back memories of Jungle Strike

"I ll build anywhere" , " Preserving freedom" Only the true warriors will understand

Like so many military projects, too many people wanted too many things from this small 'simple' recon program, causing the price tag to go well above what you'd want for an aircraft likely to take heavy losses. It was very cool and it is a little sad that it never became an active part of the military, but even at the time of it's development, the army was already working on filling this aspect of recon with much smaller and cheaper drones. No matter how sneaky you make a high-tech helicopter, a drone that costs a tiny fraction of the price and therefor is available in much larger numbers with the ability to be sacrificed in a way you would never do with a manned super expensive aircraft is just a better tool for the job.

Every time you bring up Robert McNamara it reminds me of the debacle he caused with the M-16, and how that would make a great video.

It still looks badass!!

Even after its nerf this thing still gets me to the top of the leader boards with ease. If you can get this heli in bf2042 get it.

I'm mega excited for the Raider S97 and the Defiant X, I know the Defiant has hit 247 kts already and Sikorsky president was quoted saying it will do 280+ kts... Would likely be the first helicopters ever to hit speeds that would require them to stay above 10000 ft unless they get special permission. That said, I doubt they will cruise at 250+ kts, but 200+ would still be a huge feat.