For Aircraft enthusiasts: A helicopter in my comic. But the most Iconic one at that.

[4pickupguy]

I work for an engineering firm that designs and integrates various mission systems for helicopters. My title is program manager (program mangler) but occasionally I still get to “stay current” on my A&P.
Amazing how many UH-1s are still out there. Our latest proposal involves an autonomous all electric air taxi. Soon helicopters will look like steam locomotives by comparison. Still some cool stuff coming down the pike like systems for the V-280.

 

[CCK1]

Another great book on helicopters as they were used during in the Vietnam War, excellent read!

 

[Sparky2]

I flew Army helicopters for 44 years, from summer of 1978 until the end of 2022.
I had my final flight ever in mid-December.

I retired and hung up my spurs on 30 December.

Was blessed to fly all manner of aircraft, including the venerable UH-1H.
(TH-55A, OH-58A/C, OH-58D, Bell 407, Bell 206, the Huey, and the UH-72A Lakota.)
Good times, but these feet are staying on the ground now, in retirement.



If you scroll thru a few images, you'll see a video of my final flight, in formation with a good friend who also retired, Mr. Bill Warren.
In some of these images, you will see our wives, and Bill's wife manning the fire hose to 'wet us down' for the last time.

 

[trapdoor2]

I flew Army helicopters for 44 years, from summer of 1978 until the end of 2022.
I had my final flight ever in mid-December.

I retired and hung up my spurs on 30 December.

Was blessed to fly all manner of aircraft, including the venerable UH-1H.
(TH-55A, OH-58A/C, OH-58D, Bell 407, Bell 206, the Huey, and the UH-72A Lakota.)
Good times, but these feet are staying on the ground now, in retirement.



If you scroll thru a few images, you'll see a video of my final flight, in formation with a good friend who also retired, Mr. Bill Warren.
In some of these images, you will see our wives, and Bill's wife manning the fire hose to 'wet us down' for the last time.

Cool! Miz Diane and I retired from RSA in 2019, she from Apache Contracts and I from Sustainment Eng. for CH-47 & UH-60.

Enjoy your well deserved ground duty!

 

[Sparky2]

Cool! Miz Diane and I retired from RSA in 2019, she from Apache Contracts and I from Sustainment Eng. for CH-47 & UH-60.

Enjoy your well deserved ground duty!

Thanks, Trapdoor2.

I appreciate yours and Diane's service to our country.

 

[Censport]

I took my lessons in a Bell 47. It was the same age as my Corvair. Both were 43 years old. Instructor was well older than that. In fact, he's been gone a while. So has the airport, sadly. The school at the remaining GA airport uses a Robinson R22. I've heard too many stories about the main shaft bearings in those. A friend used Hueys during her time in the service. "The sound of whoop-@$$", I think she called it.

Anyway, I see you used the SR-71 in that last frame. A bit of X-Men influence, perhaps?

 

[Blazer]

I took my lessons in a Bell 47. It was the same age as my Corvair. Both were 43 years old. Instructor was well older than that. In fact, he's been gone a while. So has the airport, sadly. The school at the remaining GA airport uses a Robinson R22. I've heard too many stories about the main shaft bearings in those. A friend used Hueys during her time in the service. "The sound of whoop-@$$", I think she called it.

Anyway, I see you used the SR-71 in that last frame. A bit of X-Men influence, perhaps?

Well... not in that particular page.

BUT...

 

[tintag27]

Walking into the village one day, I heard an unusual sound coming closer... after a few moments the unique 'whup-whup' of a 2 blade rotor was deafening and a Huey roared overhead pretty damn low! I love helicopters though I have only managed a couple of joyrides in the venerable Jet Ranger... but everybody knows the Huey!
I did some research, and finally tagged this one as the only Vietnam Veteran UH 1 flying in the UK - made my day ... found a picture, too

 

[bowman]

For 25 years I worked with a good friend who had been a 19-year-old door gunner, then a crew chief, in a Huey at the height of the Vietnam war. 1968-69. He had some wild personal experiences in that helicopter. Those birds were tough as nails on the one hand - they’d return to base time after time with bullet holes - but on the other hand you could shoot one down with a $100 rifle if you hit the right spot. We’ve all seen the movies, and those are cool, but to hear what was really said and done inside a Huey on a mission was eye opening. If it was a big operation, 25 Hueys would arrive en masse, with another wave just minutes behind. Dropping troops & supplies, picking up wounded, nonstop machine gun and rocket fire - he said you could literally see the jungle disappearing around the drop zone from all the shooting. It was a crazy place to be, and I’m glad my draft number was a high one and I didn’t have to go.

 

[lerxst_x]

Latest version, still in production: UH-1Y Venom

 

[4pickupguy]

Here’s a status film from 2020 when we were working a pair of Bell 412 EPis in Shirihama Japan during the height of the Zombie Apocalypse. I’m the old guy (blue gloves) installing the compressor behind the rotor. We were freezing our azzes off as it was an unusually cold winter. I love this stuff though.

 

[Rufus]

Ask anybody to picture a helicopter, and they will say a Huey, just as everybody knows that Fender is a guitar company.

Unless, of course, they were an AH-1 Cobra pilot.

 

[tubedude]

I went to Army flight school in 69/70. We did primary flight training in the TH-55 at Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells, TX before transferring to Fort Rucker in Alabama for instrument training which was conducted in the H-13 seen above. It was a stable platform for students and was pretty reliable and civilian versions are still beating the air into submission. After instrument training we transitioned to the UH-1 Huey, which most of us flew in Viet Nam. Transitioned into the H-60 Blackhawk in 1999 and finally had the opportunity to fly Medevac.

As i recall the TH-55 used 7 fan belts to transfer power to the main shaft. It was considered servicable if only 5 were left.

 

[Wildeman]

 

[MyLittleEye]

I served in the RAF with 18 sqn for a while. Chinooks will always be the the most iconic helicopters as far as I'm concerned. I live in the next county to RAF Odiham and still step outside into the garden whenever I sense the "chinny's" familiar "thump" approaching.

 

[Blazer]

I served in the RAF with 18 sqn for a while. Chinooks will always be the the most iconic helicopters as far as I'm concerned. I live in the next county to RAF Odiham and still step outside into the garden whenever I sense the "chinny's" familiar "thump" in the air.

View attachment 1092541

Fitting, seeing as how my most recent Aviation thread is about the RAF's Chinooks.

For Aircraft enthusiasts: “The Survivor” The tale of the helicopter that could.

I've been wanting to discuss this topic for a while, but found no way to compress it all into one, easily readable essay. But today I decided to go for broke. Anyway, “The survivor”, that story begins in the late seventies when the Royal Air Force took a look at the Boeing Vertol CH-47 Chinook...

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