Best Helicopter

tyrodtom said:

It was a light observation helicopter, not intended to carry cargo. But it could airlift another downed OH-6, thank God, we never had to , because that's way into overload, overtorque territory.
Armed with a minigun and a doorgunner, it was far from toothless.
Even with the doors off and the minigun on the side it would still top 110 knots, slicked up with doors and no minigun, you could add 10-15 knots. The only thing faster at the time in the Army's inventory was the Cobra and the Chinook.

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Like I said, it is a great aircraft. The fact that it is still used to day by the SOAR is proof to that. That is also why it was included in the poll.

I will admit that I am biased however and that is because I was a UH-60 crew dog.

tyrodtom said:

It was a far better chopper than the OH-58 the Army tried to replace it with.

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I will completely agree with you on that. I was flying formation with an OH-58D into Iraq that was too weighted down by its armament. Blew its chin bubble out when test firing the .50 Cal...

One other contender for those not on the list is the Sea King. Very advanced for its time and served in a lot of nations in the most telling environments, at sea.

once recon teams had located targets, company sized raiding parties (hatchet forces) would land, sweep, and destroy the target.
we used the larger chinooks to get in and out with Huey gunships in support
I'm the pretty one

chinooks were also used to do a lot of hauling. these coming into Nha Trang are carrying the Bob hope show
SF "perks" backstage "guards"
Bob and Carol Baker. I tried to stay close in case she need medical help

For anyone who wishes to take a peak, here is a thread of Helo pics that I have taken from my time when I was in the military as a Blackhawk Crew Chief.

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/personal-gallery/adlers-helicopter-pics-6068.html

There are also plenty of other Helo pics in this thread as well.

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/personal-gallery/military-memories-5408.html

eagle, very cool, thanks for the pics. i, of course have special fondness for the hueys

mikewint said:

eagle, very cool, thanks for the pics. i, of course have special fondness for the hueys

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I do as well. I grew up with them as my father flew them. As a kid in the summer time, I would go and hang out at the hanger sitting in the cockpit with his flight helmet pretending to fly. Unfortunately when I joined the Army it was the Blackhawk and not the Huey (which I also do not mind, the Blackhawk is an amazing helicopter).

another "neat helo from vietnam the CH-54 skycrane at Da Nang airbase
one of the many "great ideas" we were asked to evaluate. from the USAF: "instant LZ" old 10,000lb bombs left over from WWII. fly them out where you want to land, drop them, instant LZ. while the CH-54 had plenty of lift trying to fly, aim, and drop with precision was a failure. think we tried about 10 without ever geting the LZ where we wanted

Dam, that's one big bomb!

They also tried the same with a C-130, by pushing it out on the door rollers then retarded by a parachute.
With a about 6 foot pipe on the front with the fuse on the end made it explode above ground, a super daisy cutter.
I think the problem with the helicopter was it had to drop from so high to be able to escape the blast ,it couldn't get any precision.
The C130 could come in much lower, the parachute slowed the fall, and the C130 accelerated away. We may think of C-130s as slow, but they could go well over 300 kts.
I knew of a few firebases cleared that way, I don't know exactly where they wanted them, but they didn't seem so badly placed to me.

Getting bombs where you wanted them was always a problem. the helos had no bombsite so it was by guess and by golly probably either to far or to near a treeline.
even for dedicated bombers it was probamatical. Running BDA after an arclight also fell to us. this is the result of two B-52 strikes. they were supposed to hit the trees along the river

Looks like they hit everything except the trees by the river.

No one has posted in a while so my favorite the Huey
1. On the beach at Na Trang inventing what would eventually be called air assault. here using ladders
2. Trying the same technique in the jungle where a normal LZ was not available. ladders were very difficult to use and impossible for wounded. it was hard enough just to keep yourself in place.
3. 2nd we tried a bosons chair which also proved difficult to hang on to and several of our guys turned turtle and fell out. Eventually we used "strings" two cables clipped onto the big rings on a para harness. what a thrill ride. this is over the A Shau
4. Strings over Co Roc a large heavily fortified mountian just over the border in Cambodia. there were at least two brigades plus many artillary companies here. the arty pieces were emplaced in tunnels. they rolled them out, fired, and rolled them back in.
5. Probably my best pic of the war. coming into BMT i snopped this pic of the lead helo just as all hell broke loose and we took fire from a camoed .51. look near the left bottom skid. i actually caught a tracer round coming up out of the jungle

I'm going to say the Apache AH1 (the British Army Air Corps) purely because from a book I read on Apache operations in the Middle East, and the rescue attempt into Jugroom Fort. For me, that was an awesome demonstration of what it could do in the hands of very brave and gifted pilots. The book is 'Apache' by Ed Macy, one of those pilots involved.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6qHcd4imKk

I was watching a Chinook and I think an Apache doing some sort of exercise last week, like a 15 minute ariel ballet I dont know what it was all about but what an awesome sight.

I vote for the huey

The problem with the Apache is it is too limited. Great for attack (the best in the world in my opinion), but what else are you going to do with it. You can take other aircraft (Blackhawk, Huey, etc) and do attack, cargo, transport, recon, etc.

Sorry I just stumbled across this one, but great pics Mike.

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:

The problem with the Apache is it is too limited. Great for attack (the best in the world in my opinion), but what else are you going to do with it. You can take other aircraft (Blackhawk, Huey, etc) and do attack, cargo, transport, recon, etc.

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I have absolutely no experience with the apaches, but our military was always envious as hell of you yanks. They pack an awsome punch

I had one of those stupid flight sim games, specializing on the Apache. Not sure if it was ever used historically, but you could load Hellfir missiles and go tank hunting over iraq.......this was post 1991, but pre2002. The thing was awesome, but vulnerable to SAMs and flak. Best technique, hug the ground and use pop and drop tactics to take out the flak position with the chain gun, before dropping flars and running

as I said its just a game

The Apache is great for killing tanks and the attack role. No one can deny that. We would have them as escorts and support when we would fly air assaults with our Blackhawks. Saw them light up some stuff with the 30mm, very impressive.

This is a subject I can talk about for ages, I've worked on helicopters for more than 30 years now and I agree with DerAdlerIstGelandet , you can't go past the Black Hawk, I am trained on 13 differant Helicopters (B204-UH1-B, B205-UH1-D/H, B212-UH1-N, B412, B214ST, B206-OH58, B206L, B407, Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk, S-76, S-92, Eurocopter AS332 and CH47 Chinook and worked on 6 other types, B214B,S-61,AS330, AS365, Lynx(naval), AW139, I have also had contact with Mil8/17 and Mil 24 operators.
my opinions

Best battlefield assault/utility- UH-60 Black Hawk, great machine just about indestructable, the latest models UH-60M 2050HP FADEC engines, glass cockpit with 4 MFD's(multi function displays), the family refined to a fine helo without comparison (what Australia should have got to replace existing Black Hawks instead of bloody usless MRH90- 14 of 46 delivered and still not accepted into service yet! though rumor has it Australia may yet get 17 UH-60M's for spec ops role as the MRH-90 can't do it!!!), the MH-60M of the 160th (night stalkers) has the 2750 hp engines of the S-92 in it, radar, flir, inflight refuel the ability to be configured as DAP's (Direct Action Penetrator) gunships with 30mm cannons and rocket pods. my dream machine! (I assembled the first Black Hawk delivered to Australia in 1988 and was an engineer/crewman on them for the next 6 years )

Best heavy lift -CH47 Chinook , the F model with similar avionics to the UH-60M and with high horspower FADEC engines , just gets better with each model, though the CH53-K will be one to watch. Though everyone should have half a dozen Mil-26's for super heavy lift , cheap (less than the price of a new UH-60M), can lift 20,000kg but not that reliable and just too big for a war zone unless lost of gunships about for protection.

Best Gunship/Tank killer- AH-64 Apache , the pre emenent gunship in the west (what Australia should have got instead of Tiger, Tiger only used by Germany,France,Spain and Australia, 18 of 22 delivered and only has limited operational status!!, Apache used by US, UK, Netherlands, Isreal, Egypt, UAE, Saudi, Singapore, Japan, Greece, Taiwan and on order maybe by South Korea and Thailand.

Best light recon/spec ops -OH6 little bird pilots love them , can be a bugger to work on but more ruggered than the OH58/206 series

Best naval helo Small-Lynx new models great machines older models with Gem engines absolutly gutless in hot and high conditions,CTS-800 engine much better, one of the most user unfriendly helicopters i've worked on great at its role but I hate it. Good machine in Europe don't try and operate in the tropics or desert

Best naval helo Medium/Large- SH-60 Sea Hawk family, like the Black Hawk family matured into a bullet proof machine tried and reliable (thank god Australia saw sence and got the MH-60R to replace out existing Sea Hawks and not the NH-90, the government learnt there lesson with the army's MRH-90 and are now stuck with them)

UH-1 family , The mighty Huey weather a UH-1H with one engine or the UH-1N /212 or 412 with twin pac a great reliable work horse , bit long in the tooth but held in fond memories with any one who has been around them ( I was trained on them in 1982 and still work on 212 and 412's)

Mil 24 Hind- one of the biggest con jobs the Russians pulled on the west fast and heavily armed but not that manouverable and cannot hover with full fuel and weapons load must do running takoffs , cannot do hide and popups like western helos

Mil 8/17- what a truck reliable cheap and good hot and high performance , build by Russians so can be easily maintained by semi skilled countries (ie third world), throw away helo , designed for war use 6 months lose it or throw away , ok for third world countries that dont fly much not good for western countries were machines are kept 20 plus years.

CH53 - good machine the K model will be a beaut, similar cockpit to S-92 with 5 MFD's and 3 huge high HP FADEC engines the Marines deserve good equip.

AH-1 Cobra family , the start of the Gunship era getting old in the tooth though the Zulu model is still lethal, don't get in fromt of a Marine in a Whiskey or Zulu Cobra!

AS332 Super Puma- Good jack of all trades helo not as good as Black Hawk in assault or spec ops role , but better general people carrier, you can do just about any role in a Super Puma but it is not the best in any role, I have operated them on UN support work and they performed very well.