Wire strike protection system

Template:Infobox aviation The wire strike protection system (WSPS) (Developed for the OH-58 / Bell 206 in 1979) is an entire system of components designed to mitigate the risk of wire strikes while flying helicopters at Nap-of-the-earth altitudes, as well as takeoffs and landings.

The system is mounted around the front of many U.S Marine Corps, U.S Navy, U.S Air Force, U.S Army,^[1] and some civilian helicopters. The larger CH-46 and CH-47 tandem rotor helicopters have no WSPS systems installed.

The WSPS system generally appears as two guidance swords at the upper and lower front of the cabin, rising resp. diving in an angle of 45° from horizontal. In each of the inner corners to the cabin a fixed, massive pair of scissors made of hardened steel is mounted, whose opening angle is so small, that a speedy or forced incoming steel cable is cut through.

(These swords are often mistaken for radio antennas). The entire system may include upper and lower cutter assemblies, a non-electrically conductive abrasive strip wire scoring device along the center of the divided windscreen, and windshield wiper protector frames to keep wires from hanging up on wiper motor shafts. ^[2] The WSPS is designed to channel a wire or cable into the cable cutter, score and weaken it as it travels into the cutter assembly, and "cut" a wire before it can entangle the rotor system or cause a crash. The U.S. Army Safety Center at Fort Rucker, AL, claims that in a single wire strike, 90% survivability is achieved by using WSPS. The more wires you encounter at a given time, the less likely WSPS will help you survive the encounter.

Some WSPS lower cutters have a break away tip in case of nose low ground impact.

References

External links

[1] Verification Tests of an AH-1S Wire Strike Protection System (WSPS)

[2] WSPS system

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