Huey Aircraft - At one of the stops, a woman pointed to the pilot's seat and asked, "May I sit there?" Rodgers assisted her into the cockpit. She tearfully explained that she had never met her father, but "this is where he was when he was killed."
Substantial airframe shaking occurs as the two-blade rotor accelerates while starting the Lycoming T53-L-11 turboshaft engine—so much that it is almost impossible to read small instruments or set the altimeter at the same time. The shaking dies down, though, as the engine and rotor stabilize at idle.
Huey Aircraft
(A Huey cockpit would be a perfect place to mix a martini for James Bond.) Noticeable during the walkaround inspection are numerous small riveted patches covering bullet holes from when this aircraft encountered small-arms fire during the war.
The Uh-B Was The Us Army’s First Gunship
The red-and-white peace symbol on the side of a Huey was a sarcastic reference to the "peaceniks" at home and was intended to mean "Peace through Firepower." Rodgers has landed at veterans' hospitals and tells of how the mere sight of a Huey has enabled some vets to start speaking about their experiences for the first time.
A veteran infantryman who had been medevaced in a Huey had recurring nightmares about his Vietnam experience but begrudgingly agreed to fly with Rodgers. A week later he reported with great relief that his nightmares had abated.
"Our Huey," says Rodgers, "is a therapeutic piece of hardware, a flying symbol of remembrance. We regard it as a token of gratitude to those who sacrificed so much for our freedom." Fuselage length: 45 feet, 10 inches
Overall length: 57 feet, 3 inches Weight: empty: 5,549 pounds Maximum loaded: 10,500 pounds Speed: 126 mph Ceiling: 15,000 feet in horizontal flight 12,900 feet hovering Range: 250 nautical miles Power plant: two United Aircraft of Canada PT6 turboshafts
It Was Originally Intended To Be An Air Ambulance
Crew: two pilots, one crewman Contractor: Bell Helicopter Textron With weaponry hanging in the breeze and cabin doors open, the Huey cruises at 85 knots, 90 to 95 knots when cleaned up and with the doors closed.
It is difficult to inadvertently exceed redline airspeed because of the unmistakable buffeting that occurs when approaching VNE (120 knots). The Huey was developed as the Bell Model 204 and incorporated lessons learned during the Korean War about helicopter operations.
A larger Model 205 was introduced in 1961, more familiarly known as the UH-1D. Hueys have served with all branches of the U.S. military, as well as multiple U.S. government agencies and at least 48 foreign countries.
Many Hueys are still in use today. Normal cruise speed | 90 kt Fuel consumption (75% power) | 76.8 gph (514 pph) Max range | 235 nm Max Endurance | 2 hours 9 minutes Rate of climb, sea level |
1,210 fpm Hover ceiling (in ground effect) | 12,500 ft Hover ceiling (out of ground effect) | 8,200 ft Service ceiling 19,390 ft Autorotation (glide) ratio | 4.25:1 Unarmed Hueys, known as "slicks", were used as troop transporters in Vietnam.
The first UH variant, the UH-1A, could carry up to six seats (or two stretchers for a medevac role). But the vulnerability of slicks prompted the development of the UH-1B, the US Army's first purpose-built gunship, which could be equipped with M60 machine guns and rockets.
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During the restoration, graffiti was discovered on the inside surfaces of the tail boom. This was left undisturbed as a tribute to Army maintenance personnel who had worked on the aircraft in Vietnam. Although 1,010 UH-1Bs have been built, this is probably the only gunship that is still airworthy.
It is used primarily for airshows, static displays, parades, veterans' events, and fly-bys. The collective and hydraulically assisted cyclic control and anti-torque pedals are conventional. The aircraft also has a synchronized elevator near the end of the tail boom.
It is mechanically linked to the fore-and-aft movement of the cyclic to increase pitch control and widen the center-of-gravity envelope. There are three basic models. The UH-1B is one of the "short bodies." Stretching the fuselage 41 inches to increase troop-carrying capacity resulted in the UH-1D.
Replacing the single turbine with a pair of Pratt & Whitney engines produced the UH-1N Twin Huey. As a gunship, the Huey normally had a crew of four, two pilots and two gunners. Each pilot has his own entry door, and the cabin has two large doors that slide aft, making the aircraft suitable for a wide variety of utility roles.
The gunship was used primarily to clear landing zones for troop-carrying helicopters and to provide close-air support for ground units. It was also used for troop transport, medevac, emergency resupply, and armed attack. The Huey was the Jeep of the Vietnam War.
I had been under the impression that the familiar slapping sound of the two wide-chord rotors could be heard only when outside the aircraft, but you can hear it from inside as well. It is particularly noticeable during turns (when disk loading is increased) and when airspeed is less than 70 knots.
Low fly-bys are made at low speed to maximize blade slapping and create a genuinely crowd-pleasing effect. This distinctive slapping is not unique, however; a similar sound is made by the Bell AH-1 Cobra and the Bell 222. Unfortunately, the rotor blades have only a 1,000-hour service life.
Replacements from Bell cost $100,000 per blade. I was instructed in the Huey by Pat Rodgers, the museum's executive director and chief pilot. He is also a distant cousin of Cal Rodgers, who in 1911 was the first to fly across the United States.
Most of his 3,000 hours are in helicopters, including 1,200 in Hueys and 1,200 in a Bell OH-58 Kiowa (military version of the Model 206 Jet Ranger). The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, commonly known as the "Huey," was a multipurpose utility helicopter famous for its widespread use during the Vietnam War.
Bell developed the powerful helicopter in the mid-1950s and produced more than 16,000 units between 1955 and 1976, over 7,000 of which served in Vietnam. The aircraft were used primarily for troop and cargo transport, medical evacuations, and aerial attack.
Hueys have also been used in civilian roles such as firefighting, humanitarian aid efforts, research operations, and search-and-rescue duties. A cruel aspect of the Vietnam War was the bitter homecoming experienced by so many returning veterans.
They were often confronted by anti-war protestors, spit upon, called baby killers, cursed, and assaulted. They were scapegoats for an unpopular war and often accused of being drug addicts, psychos, and war mongers. These U.S. veterans were one of the most unjustly maligned groups in American history, causing many to discard their uniforms and medals, keep to themselves, and rarely discuss the war.
The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, commonly known as the "Huey," was a multipurpose utility helicopter famous for its widespread use during the Vietnam War. Bell developed the powerful helicopter in the mid-1950s and produced more than 16,000 units between 1955 and 1976, over 7,000 of which served in Vietnam.
The aircraft were used primarily for troop and cargo transport, medical evacuations, and aerial attack. Hueys have also been used in civilian roles such as firefighting, humanitarian aid efforts, research operations, and search-and-rescue duties. The aircraft on these pages, N832M, was built in 1963 and served in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne and 1st Cavalry divisions between 1964 and 1966. Following military discharge, it returned stateside, eventually flew for the Lee County (Florida) Mosquito Abatement Program,
and became an unsightly wreck. It was purchased by the Wings and Rotors Air Museum in 2001 for only $10,000. It then had a painstaking and thorough two-year restoration. The Museum's aircraft, a UH-1H model, was the most-produced Huey variant, with 5,435 units manufactured.
The Museum's Huey was delivered to the U.S. Army in March 1970 and served in Vietnam with the 101st Air Cavalry and the 158th Attack Helicopter Battalion (AHB), B Company. It flew approximately 1,400 combat hours before returning to the United States in March 1972. It later served with the Alaska National Guard until 1994, then with the Search & Rescue Unit of the King County Sheriff's Office until its donation to The Museum of Flight in 2003
Following an extensive restoration effort by Northwest Helicopters in 2011 and 2012, the Museum's Huey now appears as it did during its service in Vietnam with the U.S. Army 158th AHB. Seriously wounded and huddling in the dank underbrush, men struggled to stay alive and remain hidden from nearby and approaching Viet Cong guerillas.
As their plight became increasingly desperate, the isolated American soldiers began to hear in the distance the distinctive slapping of rotor blades. There was no mistaking the whop-whop-whopping of a Huey. It was the sound of rescue, the sound of freedom, the sound of going home—sentiments almost universally expressed by those who were there.
Rodgers assured me that I would have little trouble flying the Huey. "It's the easiest helicopter I have ever flown," he said. "It was designed and built to be flown with confidence under a wide variety of conditions, many of them adverse."
The Huey was responsible for a new breed of U.S. military pilot, the warrant officer, who could go directly into flight training from high school without having to undergo the rigors of becoming a commissioned officer.
More than any other aircraft, the beloved Huey symbolizes the Vietnam War and the American heroes who served and sacrificed there. The iconic helicopter was developed specifically for the United States military and first flew on October 20, 1956. The Army's first turbine-powered helicopter, it was originally designated as the HU-1 Iroquois, the pronunciation of which is the origin of the Huey epithet
. The aircraft was redesignated as the UH-1 in 1962, but the familiar nickname stuck. "Huey" became so popular and immortal that Bell began casting the name on the anti-torque pedals. Its official name, Iroquois, is rarely used except when referring to a nation of Native Americans.
Raise the collective slowly and feed in left-pedal pressure until the Huey gets light on the skids. Raise the collective a bit more, pull into a hover, lower the nose, add more collective, and you're on your way, climbing more than 1,200 fpm at the best climb speed of 60 knots.
The Wings and Rotors Air Museum is at the French Valley Airport in Murietta, California. It was founded in 2000 by Rodgers (and an anonymous benefactor) and has several Vietnam-era aircraft, including the Kiowa and a restored McDonnell Douglas F4H-1 Phantom II.
Many of the volunteers are vets who have had experience with Hueys and love being around them. Further information is online. The Huey was developed as the Bell Model 204 and incorporated lessons learned during the Korean War about helicopter operations.
A larger Model 205 was introduced in 1961, more familiarly known as the UH-1D. Hueys have served with all branches of the U.S. military, as well as multiple U.S. government agencies and at least 48 foreign countries.
Many Hueys are still in use today. More than 16,000 Hueys had been built when production ended in 1986. Seven thousand of them served tours of duty in Southeast Asia. Civilian versions of the Huey are the Bell 204 (short-body), the Bell 205 (stretched), and the twin-engine Bell 212.
The UH-1C, another variant designed for the gunship role, sought to solve this problem by adding an extra 150-horsepower to the engine. The UH-1D, meanwhile, was the first of a new, larger model of Huey with longer rotors and another additional 100-horsepower.
The gunship carried effective and concentrated firepower. The deactivated armament aboard this Huey is typical and includes a traversable M134 Minigun with six rotating barrels that could fire 6,000 rounds per minute; a pair of rocket launchers that each fired seven 2.75-inch, folding-fin rockets;
a .50-caliber machine gun; and a 7.62-mm M60 machine gun. The only thing missing is a grenade launcher in the nose. During combat the cabin floor was typically stacked with ammo boxes and grenades that could be tossed overboard to accommodate rescued personnel.
The Huey autorotates beautifully and makes you appreciate the high-inertia rotor blades, which make it easy to maintain safe rotor speed during descent. A normal approach is made from 300 feet and 60 knots while maintaining an eight- to 10-degree descent profile.
Initial touchdown occurs on the rear of the tubular skids. During May 2008, Rodgers and his Huey were joined by two other helicopters, the museum's Bell OH-58 Kiowa and a second Huey belonging to Overseas Aircraft in Lakeside, Arizona.
They formed a flight of three, headed east from Southern California, and referred to themselves as "Flying Thunder." Their goal was to arrive and pay homage at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (the "Wall") in Washington, D.C., on Memorial Day along with Rolling Thunder, many of whom arrive as a huge gathering of motorcyclists.
Sadly, the trio of ex-military helicopters was denied permission to enter restricted airspace and fly the last mile to honor the 58,286 veterans whose names are inscribed on the black granite wall. Instead, the helicopters had to land short at Leesburg, Virginia.
The UH-1B is an honest, stable, and relatively easy helicopter to fly. My greatest challenge in flying any helicopter is hovering and making pedal turns (pivoting turns while hovering) at three feet in a crosswind. I did not do all that well in the Huey but much better than I had anticipated, considering that my 300 hours of helicopter experience are spread over 50 years.
This was more of a tribute to the Huey than it was to me. During a stop in Alabama, a member of the Purple Heart Association told Rodgers about his last flight in a Huey. Badly injured, all he could remember was staring at the ceiling.
When offered a ride, he didn't want to go, but finally relented. He returned with tears of joy. "That flight made a big difference in my life," he later told Rodgers. "It helped me to get rid of some really bad demons."
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