US Apache design stolen from South Africa?

The US stole its apatche helicopter from South Africa.
It is a Direct copy of the ''Rooivalk"
They also stole the look and shoot helmet from Them

Mod Edit: Added clarity to title

[edit on 3/7/08 by FredT]

And what evidence do you have to prove that statement? Not that I am saying that you're wrong, its just that to make a statement like that without any sort of proof to back it up would be like me stating "Im on a UFO right now and I invented the personal computer but the tech was stolen from me" without some way to prove what I said.

Are you talking about the AH-64 Apache? If you are I'm pretty sure youre wrong. According to wikipedia, the Rooivalk was put into service in the South African military in 1999, with the program itself starting in 1984. Pre-production models of the Apache were given the the US army in 1981, three years before the Rooivalk project even started.

To me the Rooivalk looks more like a russian helicopter. Maybe the Havok?


Come on guys im at work, cut me some slack[inserts guy with uzi smiley]

[edit on 7-3-2008 by truttseeker]

Totally agree with you , rather Russian-type design. However US military recieving Apachee before WW1 is unlikely... Yes i know it is a typo.

Originally posted by truttseeker
Are you talking about the AH-64 Apache? If you are I'm pretty sure youre wrong. According to wikipedia, the Rooivalk was put into service in the South African military in 1999, with the program itself starting in 1984. Pre-production models of the Apache were given the the US army in 1891, three years before the Rooivalk project even started.

To me the Rooivalk looks more like a russian helicopter. Maybe the Havok? [/quthey might have lost 1 in the

they might have used them in the boer war and left one behind for SA to copy?

you know advanced tech and aliens and all that

Originally posted by truttseeker
. Pre-production models of the Apache were given the the US army in 1891, three years before the Rooivalk project even started.

1891!!!!!! That must have been some sight to behold no wonder US forces were victorious in the Spanish American War! No calvary could stand up to a hellfire missile!

However on a serious note, the SA chopter appeared much later than the Apache which itself was an indirect decendant from the ill fated Commanche project

[edit on 3/7/08 by FredT]

I'm so happy that I'm surrounded by the best conspiracy theorists on the internet. Good catch guys. I can always use a nice laugh.

And I was about to chime in by saying, maybe that's why SA aren't selling many of them!

Anyways,didn't the CIA have close ties with SA government back in the 80's?

reply to post by FredT


i think your getting confused with the

AH-56 Cheyenne

as the Apache first flew as the Hughes YAH-64 in 1975 , the RAH-66 Comanche didn`t fly till 1996

reply to post by Harlequin


You are 100% correct. In my defence I was also working in the PICU at the time of the post

Uhmm... not meaning to be too critical to the original poster but a very quick web search would have shown this proposition to be a temporal impossibillity! To put things into perspective most modern attack helicopters look simillar because the layout is the most efficient for the role they undertake.

The origins of the Rooivalk actually lay in the Super Puma with which it shares the same basic dynamic components. This is analogeous to the design heritage of the very first dedicated design attack chopper the Bell AH-1 Huey Cobra family. The AH-1 was designed around the same engine, transmission, rotor system and tail boom (as well as a few other systems) as used on the UH-1 Huey. This shortened and simplified the development time as the Huey's dynamic components were well proven in combat and would be logistically attractive. The same goes for the Rooivalk. Given SA's isolation during the apartheid years it was only natural that they would work with what they had, and what they had was the well proven Super Puma.

As for helmet sights, again nothing new here. Plenty of people have been working on that idea for many decades and again it is because it is a logical development whose genesis can arguably be traced all the way back to the Norden bombsights and early HUD type gunsights of WWII. Sooner or later multiple design efforts were going to come up with it more or less simultaneously.

Simillar story to the Cobra but a good 20 years later than it, and at least 10 years after the AH-64 Apache.

LEE.

if anything it looks like an off-spring of a russian helicopter and the cobra... in my opinion it looks nothing like the apache... and well everyones already prove that they couldn't have stolen the idea seeing as how the SA copter didnt come around until 20 yrs after the apache

raptor1

Also, keep in mind that South African warfare and American warfare are quite different things, and the respective choppers take those styles into account, so the designs can't be the same. The US and other militaries traditionally focus on the "big war" kind of combat where supply convoys and FARPs are always somewhere to be found, so the Apache is an all-out brawler with power and weapons up the wazoo, while the Rooivalk is meant to traverse long distances and fight in smaller conflicts in the harsh African environment, where an FARP might not always be found. They can't be the same because they often don't take on the same level of work. That isn't to say that fighting in South Africa isn't fierce, though...

know a guy who worked on this project - it is indeed a derivative of the Puma, logical step for ease of maintenance, and also considering that the Makila Turboshaft engine is locally manufactured.

Most interesting thing he told me was that the original alpha X1 project was almost completely redeisgned with most input coming from Flight Engineers/mechanics, to allow ease of maintenance, overcome known design shortcomings, etc etc.

Hence the end result a relatively cheap, reliable, easy to field maintain chopper, which would undoubtedly have taken its cue from the Cobra which predated it by at least 15 years. Also most armament systems are cloned from US/Italian designs, prob supplied the Israelis in exchange for various bits and pieces.