It would be this twin bladed main rotor that gave the Huey its distinctive “chop chop chop” sound that some have pointed to as the origin of the term “chopper”. A simple twin bladed main rotor, and a twin bladed tail rotor.
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 Bell UH-1, or “Huey” as it’s commonly known, is one of the most famous helicopters in the world.
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