Many of those who summit those mountains in Colorado are not long-time mountaineers, nor do they spend days slowly climbing from low altitudes – several of the peaks have roads to above 10,000 feet, with the climbs starting above there – you can be in Denver at just over 5,000 feet for the night, and be hiking at above 12,000 feet 3 hours later.

There are >50 mountain peaks in the State of Colorado that exceed 14,000 feet, and oxygen is required for climbers on exactly NONE of them – hundreds if not thousands of people reach at least one “Fourteener” summit each year without supplemental oxygen or air, and these are people undergoing significant physical exertion.

WW1 pilots at 15,000 feet without supplemental oxygen or air is perfectly feasible.

From Wiki:

Chakri Naruebet was ordered in 1992, launched in 1996, and commissioned into the RTN in 1997.

The aircraft carrier is designed to operate an air group of V/STOL fighter aircraft and helicopters, and is fitted with a ski-jump. Initial intentions were to operate a mixed air group of Matador V/STOL aircraft and S-70B Seahawk helicopters.

However, by 1999, only one Matador was operational, and the entire V/STOL fleet was removed from service in 2006. Although Chakri Naruebet was intended for patrols and force projection in Thai waters, a lack of funding brought on by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis meant the carrier has spent much of her career docked at the Sattahip naval base.

Chakri Naruebet has been deployed on several disaster relief operations, including in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and in response to separate flooding incidents in late 2010 and early 2011. Other than disaster relief, the carrier’s few other departures from port are for a single training day per month, and transportation of the Royal Family of Thailand, leading to claims by some naval commentators that the ship is merely an oversized royal yacht.

So my next question is what does the NH90 do that yer latest Sikorskyhawk doesn’t?

I don’t want any smart answers here. I would think that buying a newer design would be preferable to one which is slowly falling out of favour with the US?

I’m not at all trying to be contentious and I know that the Blackhawk has been incredibly successful, so I am genuinely wondering what the NH90 can do that it can’t.

Blackhawk has only side doors, and a lower interior roof. It cannot carry pallets of material.

MRH-90 has a rear ramp in addition to the side doors, and a higher interior roof. This allows faster loading/unloading of troops, and carriage of loaded pallets. It also carries more troops than Blackhawk.

Bit surprised spelling could be such a ‘factor’ for some!!

Don’t ask about the shade of aircraft colors – “sky”.

Note that the initial decision for the F35B over the F35C was made back in the early 2000s – specifically at the request of the RAF, who wanted to retain the short-field/damaged-runway STOVL capabilities of the Harrier.

The late 2010 decision for F-35C was very late in the design/build cycle of HMS QE – which led to the high costs that caused the reversion to the F-35B in early 2012.

UH-60A: T700-700; 1,622 shp

SH-60B & UH-60L : T700-401C/701C; 1,890 shp

MH-60R/S: T700-401C; 1,890 shp

SH-60M: T700-701D; 1,994 shp

MH-60M: YT706-GE-700 (CT7-8B-5); 2,600 shp (selected 2005)

Not to mention new & redesigned rotor blades and uprated transmissions.

Just a slight difference from the early Blackhawks, eh?

So I’d say that new-model Blackhawk/Seahawks should have no problems with “hot/high”.

At a guess the cost is to transport and repack the chute.

They have a finite life – something like 30 deployments I think it is then it’s life-ex and I believe a new one IIRO £30K so they don’t deploy them as a matter of course. Again I’m guessing but I suspect it was due a change that’s why it was deployed and maybe to exercise the system. It was said at Waddington on the Sunday the chute would be deployed but it wasn’t so I found that disappointing.

£30K ÷ 30 uses = £1000 per use replacement cost.

The other half of the quoted £2000 per use would be inspection, repair, repacking, and re-installation.