Love how the gov't works some times

[jeff_b]

BUFFS rule. During my stint in the AF, we routinely radar-tracked B52s lower than B-1s, FB-111s, or anything else (except the RAF Tornadoes), albeit a bit slower. <100 ft AGL was quite common at simulated bomb release point.....the lowest I ever tracked one was 43 feet AGL, Det 7, Forsyth, MT, Mar 1986.

[Hallen]

Yeah, well, you could have been flying this thing:

Only airplane in the Army inventory that could have a bird strike... from the rear. (translation, it is a slow airplane) But it was/is cheap and very dependable. It flew like a Winnebago with wings, but it was very stable. It never failed me.

The C-5 is a monster. I had to work with them a lot at Ft. Campbell when I was a Huey crew chief. Damn things were always breaking down meaning we had to unload and reload. Not fun. But watching one of those bad boys take off... man, you thought it would stall out. It was so big that it didn't look like it was moving fast enough to get off the ground.

Congress is never interested in refits. They just want to buy new stuff so they can get the big contracts moved into their states. The Huey was the same way, it could have been retrofitted a number of ways and been much more viable than it was. Instead, we got the Blackhawk, which turned into an awesome helicopter over time, but at first, it was a real POS. We called it the lawn dart because of its propensity to auger in. We flew our asses off during that time because they Hueys just kept on going. I did end up flying the Blackhawks (L models) later on and it was a fine helicopter. The L model engines really gave it some grunt and it was very maneuverable. Fun to fly low level.

[Ral]

^^^ Hueys and their badass little brother, the Cobra, are still flying in the Marine Corps. In fact, the latest versions of the Huey and Cobra are rolling out now and are utterly unreal fighting helicopters. One of my friends from school just got winged and is now a Snake (Cobra) pilot in San Diego. Unreal. I'd almost consider trading lives with him if possible, besides having to be in the Marine Corps and a 240sx guy.

[Adrian_Visser]

Don't forget the civilian versions of the Huey, the 205 (single engine same as vietnam hueys) 212 (twin engine) and newest version the 412 still and always will rule the medium lift category of civilian rotary wing aviation. I am a 212 mechanic and they may be 30+ years old but there still isn't another helicopter in production that can do what it does as reliably and afford ably as it can.

[Hallen]

Oh, I will never forget the Huey. I wrenched on them for 6 years. Then, it was the aircraft I learned to fly in and have the majority of my hours in. It was a real hands-on kind of aircraft; you could never stop flying it or it would bite you. It was also very forgiving as well. Doing autorotations in it was relatively easy. For a helicopter, it was also very simple mechanically.
Add the 4 composite blade system to it with a couple of engines with around 1800shp, and it would be a real brute... hmmm, isn't that like a 412?