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| The PADC Hummingbird in flight in 1980's |
Today, the Philippine government rely most of the hardwares from foreign suppliers. But don’t you know that Filipinos are capable of designing and developing their own? Many Filipino inventors had proved this. In the field of transportation, one can’t forget the famous moon buggy used by the American astronauts, the hydrogasifier engine, the water-powered car, the solar-powered car, etc. and many other unsung inventions that only few people know.
I have featured two fixed-wing crafts in my previous articles --- the under development Wing-in-Ground (WIG) vehicle and the Defiant 300 which was built decades ago and not realized into production due to the lack of government support. Do you know that Philippines produced its indigenous helicopter? Yes, it is!
The helicopter is known as the Hummingbird. It was designed and developed by the Philippine Aerospace Development Corporation (PADC) which also developed the Defiant 300 aircraft in 1980’s. It was basically an improvement of the German MBB Bo 105 helicopter. After the initial development stage, it was later deactivated due to budgetary constraint.
It was not until July 1997 when President Ramos authorized spending for the project. The PADC undertook the development effort. Ramos was succeeded shortly thereafter by President Estrada, whose government immediately conducted a review of the Hummingbird program along with the Defiant. The review concluded that the two projects, which were only a year old at that point, were likely to be unjustifiably lengthy and expensive. As a result both were immediately terminated and added to the list of Filipino inventions that became scraps.
It was not until July 1997 when President Ramos authorized spending for the project. The PADC undertook the development effort. Ramos was succeeded shortly thereafter by President Estrada, whose government immediately conducted a review of the Hummingbird program along with the Defiant. The review concluded that the two projects, which were only a year old at that point, were likely to be unjustifiably lengthy and expensive. As a result both were immediately terminated and added to the list of Filipino inventions that became scraps.
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| Hummingbird's present form |
globalsecurity.org
Photo:
wikipedia.org
globalaviationresource.com
..hanggang ngayun po ba ay buo pa rin ang hummingbird o talagang sinira nila lahat?? san po kinunan ang picture nito ng prsent form??
ReplyDeleteSana ituloy ng gobyerno ang mga proyektong kagaya nito pra madevelop at magkaroon tyo ng tiwala at kakayahang tumayo sa sarili nating paa.
ReplyDeleteto correct some statement: PADC is philippine aerospace devt corp. i was there. one of aircraft tech who assigned in tail boom assembly. several attemps to roll out the the project for 1998 araw ng 100 kalayaan celebration... our president during that time was capt pamp. villaruel, ndi ma complete yun launching because of MB BO 105. as i remembered we were aircraft tech na distributed ang work place kame sa tail boom, sa mounting etc... jon diego
ReplyDeleteThank you for your enlightenment Anonymous (April 5, 2014 at 3:32 PM). Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog. Looking forward to have your constructive insight on my future posts.
DeleteWas there an employee named Albert LAO,.He was my classmate in Patts at that time and he told me about they were making this helicopter. It hink it was somewhere around 93-95.do you have any idea where he is working .Albert is very informative and helpful ,we learned a lot from him and he even ,5 of us helped to get OJT at PADC and he tought us a lot of things ., and.
DeleteThanks for this info.
The real problem with such kind of inventions and innovations are mostly budgetary constraints. With the way China is bullying its neighbors, it is high time for our Defense people/leaders to make way for us to produce our own air-sea-arms assets, AND MUST BE FULLY SUPPORTED by our legislators and budget/finance people....
ReplyDeleteI thought the reason why this wasn't continue'd was because the Company of the MBB Bo105 threaten'ed to impose it
ReplyDeleteSana makarating kay president duterte ito. Ituloy nya ung mga ganitong proyekto.
ReplyDeleteSana makarating kay president duterte ito. Ituloy nya ung mga ganitong proyekto.
ReplyDeleteWag na po tayo umasa sa gobyerno. Wala po alam ang ating gobyerno kundi mangurakot at magnakaw. Magabroad nalang tayo at dun mapapakinabangan ang ating talino at talento. Kung magaling ka magenglish, aba, eh bagay ka sa pinas kung saan naglipana mga call centers dito na pumapatay sa teknikal na industriya ng ating bansa. Isa akong aeronautical engineer sa PADC. As of 18 January 2017, pabulusok na pagbagsak ang ahensyang ito. Wala na tayo maasahan at wag na tayo umasa sa gobyerno ng Pilipinas.
ReplyDeletenakakalungkot isipin ang kalagayan ng ating bansa ngayon, sana maintindihan ng gobyerno na kailangan talaga nating makagawa ng sariling helicopters at eroplano dahil kailangan natin ang mga yun lalo na sa AFP at pulis, pati search and rescue. Kaya natin yun, magastos nga lang talaga pero i believe worth it naman, tingnan nio India may attack helicopter na silang sariling design. For example yung problema natin sa rebellion at terrorism bakit hindi masolve, kakulangan sa gamit un gaya ng transport at combat helicopters, pero dapat specially designed para maritime at high altitude dahil archipelago at mountainous ang bansa natin.
ReplyDeletei was there composite in PADC by Late. Capt. Villaruel , sheetmetal in ATI by Velasquez, , naramdaman ko ang panghinayang na nasa. abroad ako aircrat technician ,bakit ang daming
ReplyDeletekwento ang governo ang alam ko may solusyon ang lahat na bagay,, parang lumabas na Lack of knowledge ang sumira ,dapat pinagkaisahan nalang na ang structural body design modified and made measurement original in the Philippines at mag ask ng inquiery sa bansang tutolong kong sino ang makapagbigay ng authority sa engine ,main rotor at tail rotor para maikabit sa gawang pinoy , at kasunod sa mga tamang procedure kong paano maitama sa sariling atin., ang kaalaman ko eroplano at helicopter basta sheetmetal / structures ay naka ukit sa aking utak kong may gustong nangangailangan handa akong tumulong para sa ikakabuti ng nangangailangan sa sangay ng goberno .