Radio control helicopters are playing a bigger and bigger role in military work and they don’t come much bigger than K-MAX. These full-sized, unmanned, radio control helicopters have already been used for logging and to fight bush fires. Now they’ve been drafted into the US Marines – as supply craft in Afghanistan. They are uniquely equipped to carry heavy loads in hot desert regions, in places where humans can’t go.
K-Max RC helicopters (or K-MAX Unmanned Multi-Mission Helicopters, as their builders, Kaman Aerospace, call them) are actually modified versions of their single-seater K-MAX heavy-lift helicopters.
Like co-axial electric helicopters, they use a dual contra-rotating system that eliminates the need for a tail rotor. However, you are unlikely to see RC helicopters like these in the shops – Kaman have created a unique intermeshed rotor system with the blades placed side by side rather than one above the other. Like co-axial radio control helicopters, the blades rotate in opposite directions, placed at an angle so they don’t collide.
The unique rotor design means K-MAX RC helicopters have one of the greatest lifting capacities in the world - a staggering 6000lb, more than their own weight. The weight is carried by means of a tether, utilised once the aircraft is hovering.
The helicopters have an impressive 75 mile flight range and are operated by two pilots with transmitters, one at each end of the journey. According to the Kaman website, the K-MAX uses
“… a Lockheed Martin mission management system that translates the ground operator’s wishes into viable mission plans and provides any necessary guidance while the craft is in the air.”
In other words, they use a sophisticated version of the transmitters we use with our own RC helicopters.
This is one time when mere words definitely aren’t enough. You can catch K-MAX RC helicopters in flight on YouTube. Before you ask, model manufacturers are already working on K-MAX electric helicopters in time for Christmas.