loach helicopter vietnam

The Huskie was used by the US Air Force, US Navy, and US Marine Corps. This simple design made maintenance easy, while the choppers 26-foot rotor made it much easier to maneuver in tight landing zones. During 1960, the United States Army issued Technical Specification 153 for a Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) capable of fulfilling various roles on the battlefield, including personnel transport, escort, casualty evacuation, observation, and attack missions. The type was born from the US Army Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) program (which provided its "Loach" nickname) and ultimately proved an excellent helicopter system seeing only limited service in the inventories of several American allies worldwide. This was a Recon mission for Unarmed Recon Search and Rescue Helicopters 5. [12] Following a competitive fly-off, the Army requested the manufacturers to submit sealed bids. We flew down along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, he says of the supply route that wound through Vietnam and neighboring Laos and Cambodia. Pilot sold separately. It was also the right size to fit the necessary avionics and fuel stores, all while keeping the structure nimble and agile. The enemy was moving toward us when a [command and control] ship picked us up. Two of these designs, those submitted by Fairchild-Hiller and Bell, were selected as finalists by the Army-Navy design competition board. Warrant officer John Shafer was 21 when he arrived on October 16, 1970, to fly Loaches. A shaft ran to the tail and powered the two-blade rotor at the back. The Cayuse was Hughes' longest-running helicopter program and, during the Vietnam War, as many as 100 OH-6As were built a month. Graphics are very well done, the whole model is very well done. The SeaCobra was a twin-engine attack helicopter that was developed from the single-engine AH-1 Cobra helicopter. Shop | The US Army charged Hughes for 714 units with the serial production contract formally announced in May of 1965. 2 .50 cal MG pods Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 11/18/2017 | Content www.MilitaryFactory.com Nate Shaffer has restored a Hughes OH-6A Cayuse helicopter. The helicopter made a Forced Landing. For this, a small rotorcraft capable of landing in restrictive locations and easily transportable via US Air Force transport aircraft was necessary. The helicopter was hit in the Left Side It was deemed, based on Hughes' estimates, his units would be most cost effective in the long run. I have come home with blood on my windshield. They were employed in hunter-killer tactics, wherein they flew low over the jungle as bait to draw enemy fire. In 1966 it entered military service with the US Army. Disclaimer Photographs In contrast, of the nearly 1,100 Cobras delivered to the Army, 300 were lost. Its formal name is derived from the Cayuse people while its "Loach" nickname comes from the acronym for the Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) programme that it was procured under. Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) program, The US Air Force Panicked When Its Top-Secret Stealth Fighter Crashed Into the California Wilderness. The Marine Corp used it for the sea-based interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1972. 2 MK19 40-mm grenade launcher The light observation helicopter OH-6 Cayuse, or Loach (based on the LOH acronym), was a Vietnam-era helicopter designed with speed and maneuverability in mind. Upon returning to the United States, he established a career in the construction industry and settled in rural Sierra City, California. The Cayuse had a single articulated four-bladed main rotor, a metal two-bladed tail rotor, and a V-shaped tail. Upon landing, an inspection revealed a damaged pitch link, a rotor head component so critical that had it failed, they too would have crashed. [22] The remaining H-13s were promptly withdrawn in favour of the OH-6s. All written content, illustrations, and photography are unique to this website (unless where indicated) and not for reuse/reproduction in any form. The Loach helicopter was pitted against what was then known as the Bell Model 206. An Army article written after Johns seventh crash credited it with surviving 61 hits from enemy fire and seven crashes without losing a single crew member. History. The Army officially adopted the Bell OH-58 Kiowa in 1969. Hughes Tool Company Aircraft Division submitted their Model 369 to fill a US Army requirement for a Light Observation Helicopter capable of performing a number of secondary duties including escort, attack and casualty evacuation duties. Contact | The high-low hunter-killer combination gave way to uniform-altitude missions, with all helicopters flying nap of the earth. [2] This shaping, combined with the provision of internal bulkheads, has been attributed as giving the rotorcraft its uncommonly strong crashworthiness properties. Onboard UH1 Huey helicopter (SN 66-163-56) was Aircraft Commander, WO William H. Seaborn Jr., myself as . Home | During the Vietnam War Era, different types of helicopters were crucial for providing support for ground forces, scouting locations, and deploying or retrieving soldiers. I spent more time with them.. The Loach also had its own gunner in the rear and could carry everything from 7.62mm miniguns to 70mm rockets and anti-tank missiles. Over time, the effectiveness of this pairing was such that enemies would often decide against firing on the relatively vulnerable OH-1 in fear of the response that would be unleased by the AH-1. While the already-produced OH-6 Cayuses were being deployed to Vietnam in 1967, production costs were beginning to rise. https://warandlifediscussions.weebly.com/Any veteran who served in any combat zone in any capacity is invited to contact Preston Jones: pjones@jbu.edu / (479) 524-7488 This helicopter was UNK [17] On 26 March 1966, Jack Schwiebold set the closed circuit distance record in a YOH-6A at Edwards Air Force Base, California, flying without landing for 1,739.96mi (2,800.20km). I went up in a Loach with an M60 machine gun to get used to firing the weapon. Just as I set it down, the tail rotor spun off. The Huey descended gingerly into a clearing smaller than its main rotor diameter, the aircrafts rotor blades chopping tree limbs as it descended. ", FAI Record ID #11656 Absolute Rotorcraft World Record, Distance over a closed circuit without landing, FAI Record ID #11655 Absolute Rotorcraft World Record, Distance without landing, Obituary: Robert G. Ferry; Air Force veteran was record-setting test pilot, "In Vietnam, These Helicopter Scouts Saw Combat Up Close", "Jane's Aircraft Upgrades, MD Helicopters (Hughes) Model 500 (Military Versions)", "Dominican Republic Air Force Unit History", "Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force OH-6J", "Breda Nardi Hughes NH.500M in Armed Forces of Malta service", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hughes_OH-6_Cayuse&oldid=1133333304, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 07:46. Kanes commanding officer flew his command-and-control Huey to the ravine where Kane and Casher huddled. article/image or apply full credit information. The Mil Mi-4 was a Soviet transport chopper used both for civilian and military purposes. This helicopter was REPAIRED IN THEATER Worthy, the OH-6 Loach and two other air scout helicopter pilots, all decorated, were in Topeka on Saturday night for an event at Forbes Field Airport designed to increase interest and. On 1 October 1986, to help meet the increasing demands for support, the 1-245th Aviation Battalion from the Oklahoma National Guard, which had 25 AH-6 and 23 UH-1 helicopters, was placed under the operational control of the 160th. A saying among Army aviators was, If you have to crash, do it in a Loach.. Date: 03/25/1970 While successful in this respect, the Loach helicopter also had a reputation for being easily gunned down. Please direct all other inquiries to militaryfactory AT gmail.com. and Images on this page are gathered from various sources. Optional and variable (attack and special forces versions only). Front left side view of the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse helicopter; color, Right side view of the Hughes OH-6 Loach in flight; color. When the Loach debuted in 1966, it broke records for speed, endurance, and rate of climb, all important attributes for a scout helicopter. Due to its unique shape, the Loach was given the nickname . The Sikorsky S-61R is a twin-engine transport and search helicopter. Moore served as an Army OH-6A Loach scout in IV Corps, South Vietnam, 1968-1969: Fort Apache, Vihn Long Province. Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center Helicopter database. I was wounded three times and shot down nine times, Romero reports. You had a couple of flights in the Huey, then you rode front seat in a Cobra, scout pilot Allan Krausz recounts. Stepping away from her academic career, Samantha previously worked as a Heritage Researcher and now writes content for multiple sites covering an array of historical topics. Development included test and training flights in Culver City, California (Hughes Airport) and at Area 51 in 1971. The campaign included the first major use in the war of Soviet-built, shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles. While Hiller did not participate in the rebidding, Bell opted to, submitting their redesigned Model 206. The Cayuse was publicly introduced in 1966 and set several records, including record for endurance, speed and rate of climb. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft were returned to the U.S., where they were dismantled and converted back to a standard configuration; they continued to be operated as such for a time. This story is a selection from the September issue of Air & Space magazine, Donald Porter Here are the 24 helicopters used in Vietnam. The mission training consisted of loading onto C-130 Hercules transport aircraft which would then transport them to forward staging areas over routes as long as 1,000 nautical miles (1,900km). The CH-53 Tarhe was another heavy-lift helicopter designed to transport and recover downed aircraft. These hunter-killer missions, among the most hazardous of the Vietnam War, tested the resolve of the OH-6 pilots and the aerial observers sitting beside them. When the opposing forces exposed themselves, the crew would call upon an accompanying Bell AH-1 Cobra to attack. 2 M134 7.62-mm 6x barrel, Gatling type twin MG pods The Hughes OH-6A Cayuse was quite effective when teamed with the AH-1G Cobra attack helicopter as part of what were known as Pink Teams, combining the OH-6A Loach (white team) with a AH-1G Cobra atacke helicopter (red team). [8][9], A total of 387 OH-6/Hughes 369s were produced under license in Japan by the Japanese aerospace company Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Since units were all but permanently assigned to particular areas, they came to know the local geography intimately and could spot anything out of the ordinary. The OH-6A "Cayuse" is a small tactical helicopter flown by units of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment [SOAR]. The small-arms protection aircrewmen armor that was introduced in 1966 was a vest with pockets containing composite laminated plates commonly called chicken plates. A recontoured nose allowed for greater leg and head room. Initially fielded in Vietnam in early 1968, the Hughes OH-6A was used for command and control, observation, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. When the 1980 hostage situation of Operation Eagle Claw was deemed a disaster, the US military realized there was a lack of aircraft and personnel trained for such special operations. Operation Honey Badger was canceled after the hostages were released on 20 January 1981, and for a short while, it looked as if the task force would be disbanded and the personnel returned to their former units.