WEBVTT 00:06.133 --> 00:08.191 - What we did was we developed a new 00:08.191 --> 00:11.774 Apache blade fold kit for transportability. 00:12.570 --> 00:14.973 And these guys, it's training, 00:14.973 --> 00:17.337 but it's more of a development piece. 00:17.337 --> 00:19.922 We want to show, South Carolina, 00:19.922 --> 00:22.175 South Carolina National Guard is helping us 00:22.175 --> 00:24.360 With the blade fold, and then we're gonna 00:24.360 --> 00:27.951 load it on a C17 and do the last piece of the testing 00:27.951 --> 00:29.534 for the kit itself. 00:29.604 --> 00:33.050 We took the ideas of the old existing kit, and 00:33.050 --> 00:34.967 we wanted to improve on 00:36.041 --> 00:37.676 how the kit operations. 00:37.676 --> 00:41.176 Make it, give it the ability to be faster, 00:42.876 --> 00:47.043 reduce the manpower it takes to do the operation itself. 00:47.770 --> 00:50.286 We're on the fourth iteration of the test for 00:50.286 --> 00:52.935 the kit itself. It's a brand new kit. 00:52.935 --> 00:55.352 It's a completely new design. 00:55.974 --> 00:59.174 We tested it in the Huntsville facility, 00:59.174 --> 01:00.609 at their test facility. 01:00.609 --> 01:04.776 We a fleet of test Apaches, so we tested it there first. 01:05.373 --> 01:07.373 This is really the first 01:07.895 --> 01:09.312 production piece. 01:10.616 --> 01:13.531 The soldiers here at South Carolina National Guard 01:13.531 --> 01:15.595 are the first ones to be able to use it. 01:15.595 --> 01:17.164 Old time relationship, 01:17.164 --> 01:20.438 those guys have done a lot of testing with us before. 01:20.438 --> 01:23.868 They did the original Davis blade fold kit 01:23.868 --> 01:26.942 for Apache, so it just made sense for us to come back, 01:26.942 --> 01:31.109 and our relationship with the PM in South Carolina, 01:31.370 --> 01:33.538 and their relationship with the Air Guard, 01:33.538 --> 01:35.589 to be able to get us a C17, 01:35.589 --> 01:38.406 to be able to load it and go fly it. 01:38.406 --> 01:40.641 That wad really the deciding piece. 01:40.641 --> 01:43.399 - The Army has developed a new blade fold kit 01:43.399 --> 01:45.299 it is completely self-sustained, 01:45.299 --> 01:47.845 meaning you don't have to have any additional equipment. 01:47.845 --> 01:50.172 Only thing you really need is the kit and a hammer, 01:50.172 --> 01:53.025 and you can completely fold the blades on the Apache 01:53.025 --> 01:55.858 to load it onto a C17 or a C5, 01:56.243 --> 01:57.977 whatever aircraft your transporting it on. 01:57.977 --> 01:59.427 That way when you offload it, 01:59.427 --> 02:01.162 you don't have to have any stands there, 02:01.162 --> 02:03.358 or you don't need anything else. 02:03.358 --> 02:07.456 You just undo it, and put the blades on and roll out. 02:07.456 --> 02:08.822 The new kits really simply. 02:08.822 --> 02:11.657 It's actually a lot more simple than the old kit was. 02:11.657 --> 02:12.617 So it's, 02:12.617 --> 02:14.894 contractors came out here and they were showing us, 02:14.894 --> 02:17.136 kind of walking us through setting it up, and 02:17.136 --> 02:20.704 I guess now we're about to undo it and redo it again. 02:20.704 --> 02:23.386 The difference between the previous kit and the new kit, 02:23.386 --> 02:24.915 one of the big ones, is the fact that 02:24.915 --> 02:28.254 we had to use these hoists that you see above you. 02:28.254 --> 02:31.595 We would have to use a SCAMP, which is a driven crane, 02:31.595 --> 02:34.552 or one of these hoists to be able to unfold the blades 02:34.552 --> 02:37.126 or fold the blades, and this one has got a crane 02:37.126 --> 02:38.613 and everything already on it, 02:38.613 --> 02:42.266 so all you do is you hook it up drop the pins in and you go. 02:42.266 --> 02:43.914 The purpose of folding the blades is that 02:43.914 --> 02:45.708 when you're loading it onto an aircraft, 02:45.708 --> 02:47.619 with the blades being out like they are, 02:47.619 --> 02:51.306 It doesn't fit the, the aircraft isn't big enough to fit 02:51.306 --> 02:52.365 with the blades out. 02:52.365 --> 02:54.081 So you have to fold them back that way 02:54.081 --> 02:55.757 you can load it onto the aircraft 02:55.757 --> 02:57.398 without actually having to take the blades off 02:57.398 --> 02:59.695 and transport the blades separately from the aircraft.