When You Have to Lift a Lot, You Need a Lot of Lift The CH-54 entered the world of heavy lift as a military helicopter in the early 1960s. The civilian version, the S-64, capable of carrying 17,636 lb. (8,000 kg), came not long after and is now manufactured and supported by Erickson. In addition to the hundreds of changes Erickson has made to the aircraft over the


years, it has recently designed new S-64 main-rotor blades, which are manufactured in the same facility used to support the legacy blades still in service around the world. When you design a new blade for an existing airframe, you consider every available,


practical improvement. Thus, the new blade is of composite construction, with a longer service life and a more effi cient airfoil design—lifting capacity is now 20,000 or 25,000 lb., depending on the aircraft model—but is a bolt-on replacement for the original, mostly aluminum, blades (in sets of six, of course). To make each new 32-ft.-long blade, an aluminum mandrel is meticulously wrapped


by hand with over 300 layers of carbon- and glass-fi ber mats, with more than 100 leading-edge weights encased between layers of composites, which are then cured for 19 hours in an infrared oven. Next, the honeycomb trailing edge, the skins, and trim tabs are added. Then, all are bonded and cured together for 10 more hours.


Opposite page: More than 300 individual plies, a mix of unidirectional and woven carbon and glass fibers, are hand laid to form the spar for the composite version of the S-64 main-rotor blade.


Below: Plies are positioned and aligned with the help of lasers, but it still takes sharp eyes and steady hands.


SEPTEMBER 2022 ROTOR 55


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