I flew the AH-1F Nam 1970 - 72, USAF 20th SOS, 27th SO Wing. Before that the UH-1H Gunship, others before and after in the Reserves. I still have a shit-eating grin whenever I see one. I'm 70 now.
AH-1F variant of the Cobra was not in service during Vietnam. It was the AH-1G. They also did not enter service with the USAF. UH-1H were NEVER gunships, you are thinking of other UH-1 variants. Have you ever heard of stolen valor?
@@discofishing This is definitely an AH-1S model and probably in the possession of a museum of sorts. The UH-1H was only a utility helicopter while the UH-1B was beefed up into what became the UH-1M or "Mike" model which was used as a gunship prior to the arrival of the AH-1G Cobras, if I have my history correct.
Thank you and thank many fellow servicemen who sacrifice so much to oppose the evil force of Maoism and communism for the ideals of Freedom and Liberty, in that old and ancient land of conflicts (VN.) Theories aside, I believed that everything happened had happened were due to the attempts of expansion of the China's influence and the 'invisible' forces that the Chinese could and had exerted. [I don't know how to spell 'sacrifice' correctly and so I googled it up.] sac·ri·fice /ˈsakrəˌfīs/ noun noun: sacrifice; plural noun: sacrifices 1. an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure. "they offer sacrifices to the spirits" synonyms: ritual slaughter, hecatomb, immolation, offering, oblation; More self-sacrifice, self-immolation NO! NOT this!! "initiation ceremonies include the sacrifice of animals" •an animal, person, or object offered in a sacrifice. synonyms: (votive) offering, gift, oblation, victim, burnt offering "Abraham set out to offer Isaac as a sacrifice" YES! YES!! •an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. "we must all be prepared to make sacrifices" synonyms: giving up, abandonment, surrender, foregoing, renouncing, renunciation, renouncement, forfeiture, loss, relinquishment, resignation, abdication, signing away, yielding, ceding, waiving "the agreement has been achieved without any sacrifice of sovereignty" [Snip the rest.]
@@rueridge7597 Well the Apache advanced everything the Cobra introduced. This type of helicopter did not exist before the Cobra. That the Marines still use a version is testament to their quality design (even though they should also be using Apaches for the sake of saving 10s of millions of dollars by removing a disparate weapon system that does the same job).
The Bell AH-1 Cobra is a two-blade, single-engine attack helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It was developed using the engine, transmission and rotor system of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois. A member of the prolific Huey family, the AH-1 is also referred to as the HueyCobra or Snake
Flew the g model in rvn with c/4/77 ARA out of Camp Evans 70-71. Great memories and nightmares from time to time. Love that sound and the aroma of JP4. Served the great men of 3rd Brigade 101st and 5th Group of CCN. Heroes all!
And the latest iteration, the AH-1Z Viper, is a composite 4 blade, twin engine aircraft with advanced avionics. It has air to air/ air to ground capabilities and is equal to or superior to the AH64 Apache Long bow in every metric. What a heritage!
In the late 1970s I was an armor crewman in the US Army stationed in Germany and twice a year we went to Grafenwohr Training Area for live fire exercises. One evening Range Control called cease fire on us tanks. We watched an old school Cobra heli proceed down range and let loose with the minigun! Since every 5th round was a tracer, it looked like a laser beam!! Quite the awesome sight!! It sounded like a sawmill in the distance!
@CryinBranston - rolling the throttle from starting position to full power. This one takes me back to my days flying these at Campbell, mid-80s, in the pre-Apache days.
@@nemanjavujicic4784 - It's not the takeoff that our enemies fear. It's the approach. And the flyover. And the departure. And if need be, the second pass...
The M134 Minigun is a 7.62×51mm NATO, six-barrel rotary machine gun with a high rate of fire which can also fire at a high sustained rate. It features Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source, normally an electric
Shell oil in the background how's that for some irony! My dad used to tell me stories about spotting Shell oil trucks deep in NVA territory refueling trucks hauling sams, they were rightfully lit up after being spotted, regardless of Johnson and McNamara but to this day I can't buy anything from a Shell station
YOU SAW THAT TOO!! EXCESSIVE AFT BEFORE LIFTOFF, RELAXED, THEN @ LIFTOFF! I saw the dynamic stop/cushion block on mast, still.. Get her light, stabilize, take second step to stable hover, or as pilot wound up shaking off, just get her light, stabilized, pull a little power relaxing the cyclic..should get ya 40-45kts attitude, push a little through the ETL ..sweet feeling.. I got to fly one, one clean bird..but can't see skids, & so high up.. felt weird.."nosebleed height landing"🤯 They served well, as our soldiers rode them hard..amazing machines! Amazing folks who designed, maintained, and fought riding these war horses..🇺🇸
That last maneuver towards the end can be deadly in a double bladed helicopter that uses a "teeter-totter" rotor head assembly--because at the apex of the climb, the chopper is in negative G leveling out after the rapid ascent. This negatively loads the blades and they actually are no longer supporting the helicopter. As a result, the become "loose" at the teeter-totter main rotor head joint and since the blades are not holding anything up, the can wiggle loosely unloaded so they become unstable and want to make the helicopter roll to the right or left--depending on the direction that the rotors were designed to rotate and when the pilot makes the correction--the unloaded blade can tilt suddenly to its maximum tilt angle capacity and the loose rotor head can then crash into the main blade mast and sever it--causing the entire rotor to come off and disintegrate after cutting off the tail boom. Robinson R44 helicopters are notorious death traps for this exact reason. This problem was discovered in UH1 helicopters soon after their introduction and widespread use during the Viet Nam War. Best thing to do when in negative G on the main rotors is to "reload them" before making any corrections to the roll axis. Just let the helicopter settle in its unintended roll after a steep climb like that in whichever direction it wants to roll until the the rotors are again loading to the point where they again become "stiff" again at the tilt joint of the main rotor head.
Sorry man, it's an AH-1S (Or an AH-1F depending on who's talking. I go with the former). A Super Cobra is a twin-engine build used by the Marines Worked on many, many of these while I was in the US Army. Camp Page in the ROK 309th AHB 1987-1991.
@@NorthForkFisherman I was AIT at Ft Eustis in 83 and spent the rest of my time at FT Ord California as a 67 Yankee. Loved my cobras. That was what we called the modernized cobra. Never worked on those. The cobras I worked had 7.62 Gatlin gun and a 40mm grenade launch and they had rounded canopies. I am now a rotorcraft pilot and fly Gyro-Copters.
