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Bell Helicopter’s 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 Folse’s drawing board at Bell Helicopter that day in March 1965 was supposed to be a hovercraft. It wasn’t. “I had an idea instead,” he explains. “My boss would be on vacation for two weeks.” Gloom pervaded Bell’s Preliminary Design Group. In a Pentagon competition to develop an ambitious concept for an attack helicopter, Bell’s proposal had just lost out to Lockheed’s—a demoralizing beat-down from an airplane company...

DENTON - Many people will go about their lives on Labor Day unaware that it’s the golden anniversary of the first flight of an aircraft that played a huge role in the Vietnam War. “The Cobra saved hundreds if not thousands of lives in Vietnam by flying as an escort to Hueys,” said Mike Folse, 81, of Denton. Folse, a Bell Helicopter engineer from 1954 to 1971, said he designed the Bell AH-1 Cobra in an act of desperation. After Bell lost a contract to Lockheed for production of an attack helicopter, Folse said he started working on a conceptual...

Over the last year, IAF demobilized its veteran AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter OrBat owing to the defense budget cuts. Ofer Zidon bids farewell to the venerable weapon system that entered service following the Yom-Kippur War The IAF has quietly retired one of its oldest and most venerable weapon systems recently. The AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter OrBat, which entered service in 1975, was demobilized pursuant to a decision (in the context of the recent cuts in the defense budget) to discontinue using the outdated helicopters. The demobilization process was executed in three stages: on July 29, 2013 the attack helicopter flight...

Move part of budget cuts * More pilotless planes being used in Gaza operations * U.S.-made Apache still in service By Dan Williams TEL AVIV, May 28 (Reuters) - Israel has phased out one of its two types of U.S. attack helicopter in favour of using more drones, military officers have told Reuters, reflecting a need for lighter and cheaper air power to counter Islamist guerrillas on its borders. They said Israel's last squadron of Cobras, built for tank-hunting and eluding surface-to-air missiles, was pulled from service late last year. The decision was previously kept under wraps but disclosed in...

USMC AH-1Z To Deploy In Late 2011 Jan 13, 2011 By Amy Butler Amarillo, Hurst and Fort Worth, Texas A decade after first flight, the U.S. Marine Corps’ AH-1Z attack helicopter finally graduated from a turbulent operational evaluation and is being readied for its first shipboard deployment. The service plans to field the AH-1Z Vipers, commonly known as Zulus, with a Marine Expeditionary Unit in November. It will operate alongside its sister aircraft, the UH-1Y Venom, dubbed the Yankee, which achieved initial operational capability in 2008. This deployment will be the first time the Marines are able to blend the...

CUTAWAY: AH-1Z Viper enters production as substantially new aircraft By Initially envisioned as an effort to modernise the drive train of the US Marine Corps' (USMC) veteran fleet of Bell AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters, the AH-1Z Viper has essentially evolved into a new aircraft. The helicopter, which was developed alongside its close cousin, the UH-1Y, is a significant technological leap over its predecessor. The new airframe offers increased aerodynamic performance and exponentially more sophisticated avionics. The service hopes to procure some 226 AH-1Zs, including 58 new-build airframes and 168 machines remanufactured from the AH-1W. For the USMC, the appeal of...

The U.S. Marine Corps’ AH-1Z Cobra was approved for full rate production Nov. 28. The H-1 program office received official word on the milestone III approval decision from Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, Dr. Ashton B. Carter through an acquisition decision memorandum. "This is the culmination of a lot of focused hard work by a lot of dedicated professionals," said Col. Harry Hewson, the Marines' program manager for light and attack helicopter programs. "We spent the past two years executing a very detailed risk reduction program that tested every part of the weapons and fire control...

AH-1Z approved for full rate production NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. -- The U.S. Marine Corps’ AH-1Z Cobra was approved for full rate production Nov. 28. The H-1 program office received official word on the milestone III approval decision from Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, Dr. Ashton B. Carter through an acquisition decision memorandum. "This is the culmination of a lot of focused hard work by a lot of dedicated professionals," said Col. Harry Hewson, the Marines' program manager for light and attack helicopter programs. "We spent the past two years executing a very...

Turkey has acted to address its urgent need for more attack helicopters and is looking at a possible interim deal to bridge the gap until the availability of its delayed Airbus Military A400M transports. To fill the first requirement, Turkey's Undersecretary of Defence Industries (SSM) has decided to buy nine secondhand AgustaWestland A129s from the Italian army. The Turkish army has an active fleet of 28 Bell AH-1s in the P, S and W variants, as listed by Flightglobal's HeliCAS database. It mainly uses the aircraft in the south-east of Turkey against PKK militants, but urgently needs to replace the...

Iran is finishing up eight days of naval exercises. This is actually a publicity event, largely for domestic and foreign media. Among the highlights were a domestically made torpedo (which no one was allowed a close look at, to insure that it was new, and not an older American or Chinese model with a new paint job) and ten new helicopter gunships for the navy. These were actually U.S. made AH-1s, which Iran had bought in the 1970s. Photographers were allowed a close look, and the only thing new about these helicopters was the paint and Chinese electronics installed in...

War porn. Six minutes of blowing up things and killing people to the sounds of the Rolling Stones.

Two men were recently arrested on charges of conspiring to export military aircraft parts to Iran. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency states Hassan Saied Keshari and Traian Bujduveanu are charged in a federal Criminal Complaint with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the United States Iran Embargo, and the Arms Export Control Act for their participation in a conspiracy to export US-made military aircraft parts to Iran. According to the affidavit filed in support of the Criminal Complaint, Keshari owns and operates Kesh Air International, a business located in Novato, CA. Bujduveanu owns and operates...

Turkey's helicopter gunship saga far from over Monday, April 2, 2007 Strangely, Italian-British AgustaWestland's victory in Turkish bid may lead to purchase of US choppers ÜMİT ENGİNSOY ANKARA/WASHINGTON- Turkish Daily News National Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül says Friday's selection of the Italian-British AgustaWestland as winner of Turkey's multibillion-dollar attack helicopter tender comes as an historic decision, putting an end to a 12-year uncertainty over the Army's key modernization program. But leading defense analysts and industry sources say that it is too early to reach this judgment, because U.S. manufacturers may eventually prove to be theunexpected but actual beneficiaries of the...

Report says Taiwan is conducting talks to buy US choppers. NEW REQUIREMENTS: Taiwan is reportedly looking into upgrading its aging attack-helicopter fleet and has been talking to both Bell and Sikorsky. AFP , TAIPEIMonday, Aug 22, 2005,Page 3Taiwan is in talks with US companies to purchase dozens of attack and transport helicopters and upgrade the AH-1W Super Cobra attack fleet serving the army, Jane's Defence Weekly said. "Taiwan and Bell Helicopter-Textron have launched talks on co-manufacturing UH-1Y Huey light utility and AH-1Z King Cobra attack helicopters to fulfil Taipei's requirement for 35 and 30, respectively, of the aircraft," the London-based...