History

The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-lift utility helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS) competition in 1972. The Army designated the prototype as the YUH-60A and selected the Black Hawk as the winner of the program in 1976, after a fly-off competition with the Boeing Vertol YUH-61. The UH-60A entered service with the U.S. Army in 1979, to replace the Bell UH-1 Iroquois as the Army's tactical transport helicopter. The Sikorsky SH-60/MH-60 Seahawk (or Sea Hawk) is a twin turboshaft engine, multi-mission United States Navy helicopter based on the United States Army UH-60 Black Hawk and a member of the Sikorsky S-70 family. The most significant airframe modification is a hinged tail to reduce its footprint aboard ships.

The latest version for the US Navy is the MH-60S, known as the Knighthawk, which culminates more than 30 years of technological advancement, improved performance and real world experience. The MH-60S is based on the UH-60A and has many naval SH-60 features. Unlike all other Navy H-60s, the MH-60S is not based on the original S-70B/SH-60B platform with its forward-mounted twin tail-gear and single starboard sliding cabin door. Instead, the S-model is a hybrid, featuring the main fuselage of the S-70A/UH-60, with large sliding doors on both sides of the cabin and a single aft-mounted tail wheel. First fielded in 2002, the MH-60S also has the Seahawk's rotor system and dynamics, including the automatic rotor blade folding system, rapid folding tail pylon, transmission and drive train with improved durability gearbox, rotor brake and automatic flight control computer. The helicopter also uses the Seahawk rescue hoist for search and rescue missions and the naval cockpit doors.
By using the Black Hawk airframe, which provides the larger cabin volume and double-doors needed for cargo and passenger transport, enabling troops to embark and disembark quickly, the MH-60S retains the Black Hawk's provisions for mounting the external pylons to carry stores and equipment, providing added capability to carry out a wide range of missions. The MH-60S has the Black Hawk's 9,000lb external cargo hook, gunner's windows, landing gear with tie downs and wire strike protection kit, along with HIRSS {Hover Infra-Red Suppression System) exhausts, automatic stabilization equipment, and fuel cells.

The Cobra Company Set

Cobra Company brings us another great update set for Academy’s 1/35 series of H-60 helicopters. This set is designed to be used with the Academy MH-60S Knighthawk naval version. There is a lot of resin in this set. It contains 57 pieces of very nicely cast resin. There are no bubbles or short-shots, and very minimal flash. The set contains all the pieces you will need to add details to and correct some of the shortcomings of the Academy MH-60S kit.

The instructions are very well written and come on four full 8 ½ x 11 inch pages with clear pictures and drawings showing very well how to assemble the conversion parts onto the Academy kit. All parts are clearly labeled and laid out well for easy identification. Subassemblies are also shown as the build progresses to demonstrate how the parts are assembled.

The set combines some elements of other Cobra Company sets and new pieces to add details to your MH-60S. The set is broken down into two parts. The first part contains 20 H-60 common pieces to detail the cockpit that come from prior Cobra Company H-60 sets. The cockpit gets new seats with molded on seatbelts, collectives and cyclic control sticks, and heat/defrost vents from the UH-60 Black Hawk Detail set. The rear cabin gets a set of new sidewall structures from their UH-60L Correction / Detail set. The seamless intakes and turbine faces are also from the UH-60L Correction / Detail set.
The second half of the set has 33 new pieces specifically for the MH-60S. These include a totally new fuel tank with rear wall and plumbing molded as one piece and a center console extension. For protection, the set includes a pair of new side fuselage chaff box mounts, which are absent from the kit.

The largest addition the set gives is an accurate pair of GAU-21 gun mounts for the cabin doors. These are the most common gun mounts used on the MH-60S, but left out by Academy. Each GAU-21 mount includes a base plate, ammo can, positionable mounting arms, gun cradle, .50 cal mg, and soft, flexible ammo chutes. The gun mounts are really nice and come out looking great. They are easy to assemble and the instructions show how to assemble them clearly.

Conclusion

As stated above, this set is very complete. The interior parts replace many of the Academy part and add some great looking details. The new parts are much better detailed than the Academy parts as well. They really dress up the interior. Likewise, the exterior parts are just as nicely done and finely detailed as the interior parts. This set is highly recommended for anyone who want to add accuracy and a bit of extra details to their MH-60S. Great job Cobra Company.