Details

The ES-69 was developed before CAS was formed and is thus a product of Squirrel Industries Aircraft Corporation. As evident by the appearance, the ES-69 is a stealth attack helicopter, powered by two small variable bypass raven jet engines which are connected to the contrarotating rotors via a gearbox powered by the engine’s turbines. The variable bypass engines allows for 2 modes of operation:

• Efficiency orientated
• Speed Orientated

Turning the engine from a turbojet to a high bypass ratio engine, with the addition of extra fuel consumption allows for faster point to point travel at the cost of efficiency, while the turbojet mode allows for slower speeds, but higher agility and efficiency.

Speed orientated mode allows the ES-69 to adopt extra speed to provide an exceptionally fast attack platform with a low altitude cruise speed which exceeds the Westland Lynx’s top speed of 249mph by 14mph (263 mph), with a top speed of over 280 mph. The redundancy system of the ES-69 allows power to be redistributed as needed in the event of component failure such as the loss of a rotor. This speed combined with agility and a skilled pilot allows the ES-69 to pull manoeuvres such as loops and barrel rolls (as there is a drop in altitude).

ES-69 during a loop

Weapons

For weaponry, it comes equipped with 10 weapons mounted on pylons (can be extended to 12) with ordinance including rockets, air to ground missiles and machine gun pods. It also comes with a remote controlled turret mounted on the front underside of the fuselage, allowing for flexible targeting. Flares and chaff are also included as part of its defence system.

Controls

• Activator 1 – Stability and primary control activation
• Activator 2 – Stability and Turret controls/activation (recommended disabling activator 1 while in use)
• VTOL – trim (for pitching while moving forward)
• Trim – Varying bypass ratio to increase forward speed or efficiency