A simple twin bladed main rotor, and a twin bladed tail rotor.
#How much can a huey helicopter lift tv
The UH-1 wasn’t just used by military operators however, it was also used extensively by search and rescue operators, police departments, TV news channels, private corporations, and even wealthy private citizens.Įarlier UH-1 helicopters were fitted with a single powered by a single turboshaft engine producing between 700 shp and 1400+ shp. The US Army, the US Navy, and the US Air Force would all order and deploy significant numbers of Hueys, they were also used extensively by militaries around the world including in Australia, Argentina, El Salvador, Germany, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Lebanon, the Philippines, Rhodesia, Yemen, and many more. In total, 20 companies submitted designs and these were whittled down to just two serious contenders, the Bell UH-1 Model 204 and the similarly turbine-powered version of the H-43 by Kaman Aircraft.īy 1956 Bell had functional prototypes in the air, they won the contract and over the following 30 years almost 16,000 of them would be built in a wide variety of sub-models. The US Army had concluded that the currently available helicopters were too big, insufficiently powerful, or too complicated to maintain. Very early in the lifespan of the helicopter the model name was changed to UH-1 however the nickname stuck, and it’s now been known as the Huey for over 60 years and counting.īell developed a design for the UH-1 Model 204 in 1952 to meet a US Army requirement for a medical evacuation and utility helicopter. The name “Huey” comes from the original model name HU-1, as it looks like “HU-I”.
The reason so many people know what a Huey is, is largely due to the helicopter’s heavy involvement in the Vietnam War, and the countless subsequent documentaries and Hollywood films about the war. In fact it’s probably the most famous outright. The USAF historians have claimed that nearly all battlefield casualties were evacuated by UH-1 helicopters.The Bell UH-1, or “Huey” as it’s commonly known, is one of the most famous helicopters in the world. The UH-1's will always be a common sight in many of the world's military forces, and are still in first-line service in the US Marines. Vietnam has been judged the "first helicopter war", and the Huey remains a symbol of the conflict far more than any other weapon, from images of Hueys dropping troops into landing zones, to pictures of Hueys thrown off aircraft carriers during the frantic final evacuation. Total Pilots Killed in Vietnam in all types of helicopters: 2,202 Total Huey’s destroyed in Vietnam War 3,305 Total Huey’s served in the Vietnam War 7,013 Total helicopters destroyed in the Vietnam War was 5,086 Total Helicopters Served in Vietnam War 11,827 Total Pilots served in Vietnam War 40,000 Huey’s Served Destroyed Pilots KIA Crew KIA Records indicate that 7,013 Hueys served in the Vietnam War. The high losses reflected their heavy use rather than a fragility of the aircraft, with the heavy use leading to crew fatigue that contributed to the high accident rate. There are specific tail numbers for 11,827 total helicopters that served in the Vietnam War from all branches of the service.ġ,925 Hueys were lost in combat, while 1,380 were lost in operational accidents. The Huey remains a legend as the most successful rotorcraft in Aviation History. There are zero registered for all other makes and models of the military variant hueys, leaving only 723 Military varient Huey models in all registered today.
9 E models, 12 F models, 10 Training F Models, 1 HH-1K, 8 TH-1L’s, 14 UH-1L, 3 M models, 1 P model, 5 civilian 205’s and 547 UH-1H’s. Today, There are only 113 B models registered. Of the 10,005 production Hueys, 9,216 went to the U.S. The Huey and the Cobra have more combat flight time than any other aircraft in the history of warfare.īell Helicopter built 10,005 Hueys from 1957 to 1975. The Huey Cobra (AH-1G) had 1,038,969 flight hours in Vietnam 22, 1956 when the first model of the huey was flown.Īrmy UH-1's totaled 7,531,955 flight hours in the Vietnam War between October 1966 and the end of 1975. UH-1 aircraft have totaled more than 27 million flight hours since Oct. The first flight of the Huey was by Pilot, Floyd Carlson on Octoin Fort Worth.