The AH-1Z Viper is one of the twin-engine variants of the AH-1 helicopter, based on the AH-1W Super Cobra.
Birth history
The first prototype of the AH-1Z Viper helicopter was successfully test flown in 2000, and although the Viper nominally belongs to the performance improvement version of the AH-1W Super Cobra, its development plan is no less than that of developing a new gunship. Compared with the "Super Cobra" helicopter, the "Viper" has completely refurbished its avionics system, rotor, and power system, especially the avionics system has reached the world's top level, which is comparable to the AH-64D "Longbow Apache".
Like the latest AH-64D and the RAH-66 "Komanqi" that has been dismounted, the Viper helicopter is the vanguard of the future informationization and digital battlefield, and it has excellent reconnaissance and search capabilities, battlefield data aggregation capabilities and digital information transmission capabilities, and has a high degree of integration of avionics systems. In the future, the AH-1Z may become the main helicopter on the battlefield. The U.S. plans to supply more than 280 Viper helicopters to the U.S. Marine Corps by 2020.
Airframe structure
Viper helicopter has an advanced cockpit design, in addition to two large multi-functional flat panel displays in the front and rear cockpits, both crew members have advanced digital helmet display aiming system (IHDSS), and related flight/fire control data can be projected on the crew's helmet mask around the clock, and is not affected by cockpit vision. In addition, the cockpit of the Viper helicopter is equipped with a telescopic mission grip with the same function as the longitudinal bar selection and weapon launch buttons. Since viper's front and rear cockpit configurations are identical, missions can be swapped between the front and rear occupants if necessary, even if a single occupant is injured or otherwise affected, with another occupant being able to do his or her work instead. The Viper's rotor is made of composite materials, and it has a system of semi-automatic folding rotors to reduce the fixed area in order to be loaded on amphibious assault ships. The two mount wings were designed to be longer and an outer mount point was added to the wing tip to mount an air-to-air missile, such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. Each wing has two plug-in points to mount rocket pods, or anti-tank missile launchers. The "longbow" millimeter-wave radar can also be mounted on the mount point. To enhance its survivability, Viper is equipped with an Infrared Heat Source Suppression System (HIRSS) to cover engine exhaust, an AN/ALE-47 counter-spreader, radar reconnaissance warning, missile aim warning and laser aim warning system.