SA330 Puma powered undercarriage

This is what I got from a Puma pilot who was there at the time;

It was a one-off prototype built to the French Army (ALAT) request for a Puma that could land, fold it’s blades and then taxy by wheeled power under cover, like a tree. It also had to be capable of crossing a 1 metre ditch. So it got a 1 metre+ ski between the nose wheels for the ditch crossing and the double bogies at the main gear. Apparently the blades were folded, I think with a freewheel system to allow an engine to keep operating, generating hydraulic power that powered the main wheels.

I remember Roland Coffignot (Test pilot) saying they built it, tested it, then spent a hour flying round the south of France trying to find a tree where the first (lowest) branches start 17 ft above the ground, not finding any and the programme was terminated. I suppose the airframe reverted back to a normal/standard aircraft.

IIRC Hydraulic.

Hi Mpacha. Many thanks indeed for the offer, but I guess a photo would not really add much above the photo in the magazine; unless there’s a registration/serial we could Google? When I saw Pagen01’s post and remembered hearing those Shackleton wind-ups myself, I thought I’d been “had” especially as it was the April edition of Air Pictorial. So if it is genuine (?) I wonder how it worked? Hydraulic? Electric? :confused:

A prototype was used to test a ten wheeled landing gear with eight powered mainwheels(four each side) which allowed the helicopter to cross rough terrain under wheel power. Thats all I know about it I’m afraid. I have a friend who has an official model of it, if you wish I can try to get some photographs of it?

Heh heh, sounds hilarious! The logic behind this must only be understandable to the creator.

Makes a lot of sense to shut down the ac before it ‘self powers’ undercover heh heh. Frankly if it’s that hairy I’d rather be hightailing out of there.

Good luck in your quest, try pprune.org, either in military aircrew and/or the nostaligia boards.

SFF

I’ve heard a wind up along similar lines regarding the sturdy nature of Mk.1 and 2 Shackleton main undercarriage units. Apparently aircrews would sometimes describe to green passengers and troops how drive shafts leading from the engine, went down through the oleo legs and drove the main wheels!