simo-dj Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 Hi everybody. pls forgive me if this is a silly question and if it's already been asked elsewhere. Basically i see in yt videos or dcs in-game screenshot that sometimes pilots put hellfires in outer pylons and rockets in inner pylons. Sometimes I see the opposite (rockets outer and hellfires inner). Is there a particular reason to chose one or another? This affect flight, manouvrabilty or it's just pilot choice to make look AH64D more badass in a way or another? Thanks a lot! 1 "If you low&slow you're BBQing, if you hot&fast you're grilling, if you low&fast you're flying an Apache" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ED Team Solution Raptor9 Posted July 25, 2022 ED Team Solution Share Posted July 25, 2022 On 7/25/2022 at 5:17 AM, simo-dj said: Hi everybody. pls forgive me if this is a silly question and if it's already been asked elsewhere. Basically i see in yt videos or dcs in-game screenshot that sometimes pilots put hellfires in outer pylons and rockets in inner pylons. Sometimes I see the opposite (rockets outer and hellfires inner). Is there a particular reason to chose one or another? This affect flight, manouvrabilty or it's just pilot choice to make look AH64D more badass in a way or another? Thanks a lot! Nowadays, rocket pods are carried exclusively on the outer pylons, but Hellfires can be carried on the inner or outer stations. It was a lot more common to see both variations as you described prior to the mid-2000s. There is no impact to flight characteristics or maneuverability since a full rocket pod weighs roughly the same as a full rack of Hellfires (it could be slightly more or slightly less depending on what type of rockets are loaded in the pod). So no impact on roll moment or inertia by swapping one or the other. The reason rocket pods aren't loaded on the inner pylons nowadays is to reduce the possibility of hot gas ingestion into the engines when firing large salvos of rockets. But personally, I always assumed that such measures were based on rare instances of such effects under specific flight conditions, since AH-64s had been rocking the inboard rocket configurations for decades without any significant issues. But, I could be wrong. 2 Afterburners are for wussies...hang around the battlefield and dodge tracers like a man. DCS Rotor-Head Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simo-dj Posted July 25, 2022 Author Share Posted July 25, 2022 2 minuti fa, Raptor9 ha scritto: Nowadays, rocket pods are carried exclusively on the outer pylons, but Hellfires can be carried on the inner or outer stations. It was a lot more common to see both variations as you described prior to the mid-2000s. There is no impact to flight characteristics or maneuverability since a full rocket pod weighs roughly the same as a full rack of Hellfires (it could be slightly more or slightly less depending on what type of rockets are loaded in the pod). So no impact on roll moment or intertia by swapping one or the other. The reason being was to reduce the possibility of hot gas ingestion into the engines when firing large salvos of rockets. But personally, I always assumed that such measures were based on rare instances of such effects under specific flight conditions, since AH-64s had been rocking the inboard rocket configurations for decades without any significant issues. But, I could be wrong. Thanks a lot @Raptor9 Always a great source fo knowledge! "If you low&slow you're BBQing, if you hot&fast you're grilling, if you low&fast you're flying an Apache" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cypher1o1 Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 Bonus for having rockets on the outer pylons is being able to look at the front of the pod and see how many rockets are left. It's harder to see that if the rockets are on the inside pylons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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