helicopter

A Blackhawk helicopter

photos by Jeff Opal, taken 16-Nov-2002, on the Parade Ground of LSU in Baton Rouge, LA, USA

   The Saturday that this helicopter was being displayed was a day of a home game for the LSU football team. When such games occur, thousands of fans congregate on the LSU campus in a ritual called "tailgating". Tailgating is practiced by very devoted LSU Alumni who are passionate about the achievements of the LSU football team.
   I was driving to the LSU Union, when I noticed this helicopter. I parked my car nearby and walked over to it. This was obviously a great opportunity to take photos.
   The LSU ROTC were surely using this helicopter to attract potential recruits. Perhaps a Blackhawk was selected because of the recent hit movie in USA public theatre's about the Somolia conflict, titled Blackhawk Down.

This photo shows a closeup of the information poster that was on the ground around two meters in front of the helicopter.
The 193 knots "Max Speed" corresponds to 222 miles per hour!
The cost of one of these helicopters is $8.08 million! [source: the 2001-2002 Military Almanac at the Center for Defense Information web site.
The Max Range is expressed in nautical Miles, apparently. The total of 248 nm and 591 nm is 839 nm, which corresponds to 985 miles.

This photo shows the front. The information poster is in the foreground.
Many sets of parents were around, letting their children see the helicopter. Many of them wanted to sit in the front seats of the huge machine.

This photo shows what the eleven passenger seats look like.
   I was surprized by how much room was available in the helicopter, and by how many total people it can carry (15).
    I've been used to the small size of civilian helicopters, and I needed to adjust my thinking when looking at this enormous military machine.
   The seat belts are clearly visible.

I really like this photo. Because only military men appear in this it, it vaguely appears like it may have been taken at in a warzone somewhere, during a conflict.
The only conflict near this helicopter was the football game between LSU and Alabama.
In case you didn't know: it's against the rules for a football team to use a helicopter, especially for kickoff or punt returns.