Posted on 07/18/2017 8:54:43 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Bell Helicopters prototype for the AH-1G Cobra flies in front of two UH-1 Hueys, the aircraft it was designed to protect. (Bell Helicopter Historical Archives via Ray Wilhite)
What was on Mike Folses drawing board at Bell Helicopter that day in March 1965 was supposed to be a hovercraft. It wasnt. I had an idea instead, he explains. My boss would be on vacation for two weeks.
Gloom pervaded Bells Preliminary Design Group. In a Pentagon competition to develop an ambitious concept for an attack helicopter, Bells proposal had just lost out to Lockheedsa demoralizing beat-down from an airplane company that had never made a helicopter. At Bells Hurst, Texas plant, an exodus was under way as dispirited engineers and executives started burning up accrued vacation time. On his way out the door, Folses boss issued explicit instructions: Forget what youre working on. While Im gone, start on a hovercraft.
The youngest design engineer ever hired at Bell, Folse climbed the ladder in the 1950s, working on projects ranging from the goldfish bowl Model 47 light helicopter, for which he was a flight test engineer, to designing airframe components for the UH-1 Hueythe most-produced U.S. military helicopter in historyto development of the 206 JetRanger.
Now among a skeleton staff in the design group that March, Folse took out a sheet of vellum paper and began rendering the sleek outlines of what would become the Bell AH-1 Cobra, the worlds first production attack helicopter. Designed, built, and deployed to the battlefield in just over two years from that day, the Cobra at last gave the rotary-wing genre a combat game-changer, purpose-built for offense.
Read more at http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/13_aug2017-birth-of-the-cobra-180963930/#Y521LEsHMWWuEIfs.99
(Excerpt) Read more at airspacemag.com ...
Later, the Cobras sported the L 13 with additional power same as the Hotel huey when it came out, iirc 1400 shaft hp.
My father was a civilian helicopter instructor at Ft. Wolters. He was retired Army Air Corps/USAF. Worked for Southern Airways. I grew up in Mineral Wells, TX. My life was saturated with helicopters constantly overhead. Did most of my daily activities on post. Shopping, swimming, seeing doctors at the Beach Army Hospital. On post bowling, movie theater, gyms, library. In a way the VN War dominated my childhood. Had a best friend in Perrin who’s father worked for Bell. He was a factory rep in Saigon during Tet of 68. Told of loading rocket tubes all day. I eventually joined the USAF myself. Now my 15yo son is in HS Navy ROTC...
I flew E’s, they had -16 engines and advertised power rating of 1870 aside.
I had to look up the CH-46E stats for my prior post and the source could certainly be wrong, so I’ll defer to you on that.
Tagging this for later...these vids sound good....
The tank museum in Danville, VA has a Huey Cobra on display with a metal stair to view the cockpit.
I don’t see how anyone with more than a 30 inch waist could fit in the seats.
Not a big deal, the A model had -8’s which were 1250, The D had -10’s at 1400.
One can tell an E by looking at the exhaust duct it is in the shape of an oval.
>The people responsible for launching the missile are immediately jubilant when the missile scores a hit but are quite disheartened when the Russian chopper fails to explode, fall out of the air, go on fire or pretty much do anything else but keep flying.
Mi-8 > Allah.
#5 Wolverine!!
Yeah, the Russians may have major mission-killing problems with all sorts of platforms or weapons systems, but their helicopters sure don’t seem to be one of them. The amount of punishment that the big Russian choppers can take and still fly is ludicrous.
US military helicopter development may have missed a trick or two somewhere along the way. There are quite a few historic battles that would have turned out better if the helicopters bringing troops to a battlefield could have flown in unsupported/unescorted, disgorged their troops and then instead of getting out of the battle area, stayed in the area to directly support the infantry and begun hunting enemy troops in the area with their heavy firepower and armored bellies. Vietnam might have gone considerably differently if our troops had been deployed from our version of the Hind behemoths, then had them stick around to hunt instead of having to fly away to avoid being shot up. Same thing for dustoff/medevac; something that can land and load troops that doesn’t have to care about enemy rifle or machine gun fire sounds like a great idea to me.
Well, at night you can use these...
As I recall it conveniently flies behind a hill and then you see an explosion. Blowing up a real helicopter would jack up the budget, and CGI wasn't around then. Then the second Hind kills the guy who shot down the first one.
True. Ghostrider likes to come out at night. It turns out I completely spaced the “C” version of the A-10. Not sure how many A-10’s have had the C conversion.
Another FReeper reminded me of that program. I must ingest more caffeine in the am before FReeping!
That’s an AC-130 not an A10.
I don’t blame the Army for wanting to provide their own air support. I just think the rule disallowing fixed wing planes heavier than a piper cub is absurd. They should be able to have any dedicated ground support aircraft just like the Marines.
Sorry the is an A-10C that is what I was referring to.
http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104490/a-10-thunderbolt-ii/
Yes, UH-1H = 1400 shp
UH-1D = 1100 shp. The extra power came in handy on very hot and humid days, more power then could be used, so had to watch the torque meter.
BTW, there was a dustoff unit at phu hiep, directly off our eastern end of the psp, next to the beach, somewhat closer to the AAF next door where the hooks and cranes were located.
Regards the extra hp, that and a little extra right pedal sure helped to get a full load out of the hole.
This entire thread has been very informative. Thanks guys.
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