How many hueys were built

Following an extensive restoration effort by Northwest Helicopters in and , the Museum's Huey now appears as it did during its service in Vietnam with the U. Army th AHB. Complete Site Navigation. Buy Tickets. Museum Store.

Private Events. Close Popup. Explore The Museum. Interested in this image? Restoring and upgrading those rotorcraft has become an important line of work for Bell and other contractors.

The engine has been replaced with the TL—the same one that propels the Cobra. The new engine provides 28 percent more takeoff power and lifts pounds of additional payload with essentially the same fuel consumption as the current UH-1H, Fitzgerald said. The Huey II is a kit of new, upgraded components which can be incorporated into an existing UH-1H airframe in about 12 weeks, Fitzgerald said.

The aircraft is dismantled, transmission and engine rebuilt, new parts installed, and the Huey II emerges to take its place in the operational fleet. Thus far, Fitzgerald said, kits have been sold, and 28 more are on order. If they choose, most operators currently flying the UH-1H can perform the modernization in their own facilities, he said.

The kit also can be installed by Bell-authorized facilities. US Helicopter has eight buildings on six acres of land. A 60, square-foot primary maintenance hanger can accommodate a production flow of up to 42 helicopters at a time, Joyce said. Customers can choose from a wide variety of optional add-ons, such as armor decking, upgraded avionics, cargo hooks, rescue hoists, fire-fighting buckets, extended-range fuel tanks and floats.

In all, over the past decade, the firm has upgraded helicopters for the Army; National Guard; federal, state and local agencies, and 19 foreign countries. The leading foreign customer has been Colombia, which at last count had acquired 82 Hueys for use in its long campaign against drug smugglers and rebels. Other Hueys have gone to such countries as Jordan, Greece and Thailand. When President Bush visited the Philippines in October, he promised to provide that country with 20 refurbished Hueys.

The Huey is popular in the international market for used helicopters, Fitzgerald said. A competitor is the Russian-built Mi Hip multi-mission helicopter. The airframes have a lot of life left in them. They can be kept in service for a long time. In General Howze was put in charge of a board formed to consider and test new tactical theories. During these trials, Howze used Hueys to demonstrate the ease of moving a company of infantry about soldiers across a river or over rough terrain.

He argued that the Army's two airborne divisions - the 82nd and the st - needed this capability because both units were designed to move quickly to counter battlefield threats. Based on his recommendations, the Army created the 11th Air Assault Division to test Howze's theories. The results led the Army to fundamentally change the way it rode into battle and the service introduced a new type of warfare several years later on the other side of the world - Vietnam.

The first Hueys to operate in Vietnam were medevac HU-1As that arrived in April , before the United States became officially involved in the conflict. In October, the first armed Hueys, equipped with 2. The main role of these Huey 'gunships' was to escort Army and Marine transport helicopters. By the end of , the Army was flying more than 'A and 'B model Hueys.

During the next decade, the Huey was upgraded and modified based on lessons learned in combat. The UH-1D entered service in with a wider main cabin, a higher gross weight, and more powerful engine, although at high altitudes in the humid climate of Vietnam, it still lacked sufficient power for some missions. This was the last major Huey upgrade. At last, the Huey had enough power to handle almost any mission in the harsh conditions of Vietnam. It could carry up to 1, kg 4, lb on its cargo hook or an equal load internally.

A The Huey mission portfolio now covered troop transport, medevac, gunship, smoke ship, command and control, general service and support, and reconnaissance, and all branches of the U. It was in Vietnam that Army and Marine soldiers first tested the new tactics of airmobile warfare.

In a typical air assault mission, Huey helicopters inserted infantry deep in enemy territory. Huey gunships, equipped with machine guns, rockets, and grenade launchers, often escorted the transports. The Hueys carrying troops were nicknamed "slicks" because they were not cluttered with rockets or guns mounted externally.

As the slicks approached the landing zone, or LZ, the gunships swooped down and sprayed rockets and machine gun fire into areas that might conceal enemy forces.

Some Hueys, including the aircraft now in the NASM collection, carried equipment to generate a thick cloud of smoke. Smoke was deployed between the LZ and suspected enemy positions to protect the slicks and their valuable cargo.

As the Hueys laden with troops touched down, door gunners aboard the slicks fired machine guns to help cover the soldiers as they jumped to the ground. In seconds, the troops cleared the aircraft and the pilots accelerated up and away as quickly as possible to clear the LZ to make room for other slick approaching the LZ.

Within minutes, helicopters could insert entire battalions into the heart of enemy territory - this was airmobility. The Huey became a symbol of U. At its peak in March , the U. Their impact was profound, not only in the new tactics and strategies of airmobile operations, but on the survival rate of battlefield casualties.

Army patients made up , of the total number of people transported by medevac helicopters in Southeast Asia. Almost a third of this total , were combat casualties. The Huey airlifted ninety percent of these casualties directly to medical facilities. Advances in medical technology and the medevac helicopter reduced that number to twenty-six percent during the war in Korea. In Vietnam, the percentage of soldiers who died from wounds sustained in combat fell to nineteen percent, about a twenty-five percent drop from the Korean War fatality rate.

Perhaps a more compelling statistic is the total numbers of people transported by medevac helicopters, nearly , in Vietnam compared to 17, in Korea. A final statistic to consider is the number of soldiers who died from their wounds after reaching medical facilities. During the war in Vietnam, this figure actually rose by.