Grandson Of Huey Joins The Marines

I love these old birds! They are smaller than the new toys the army likes, but they can get into areas that those larger choppers just can't fit. Like troop transports.

Air Transportation: Grandson Of Huey Joins The Marines: "August 20, 2008: The U.S. Marine Corps has accepted the UH-1Y transport helicopter for mass production, and will put the first UH-1Ys in service by early 2009. The manufacturer, Bell Helicopters, has a contract to remanufactured AH-1W Super Cobra attack and UH-1N utility helicopters to the AH-1Z and UH-1Y standard. Overall, the remanufactured models will share about 80 percent common parts, including a glass cockpit. The UH-1Y can carry three tons, has a cruise speed of 159 kilometers an hour and the average sortie lasts about 50 minutes.

Although the UH/AH-1 airframe design is half a century old, this is another example of how, via rebuilding, a basically sound design can continue to serve for decades. Or, in this case, half a century. The army went on to replace its UH-1s with the UH-60, and the AH-1 (which is a modified UH-1 airframe) with the AH-64.These new designs were superior in many ways, but as dozens of nations have discovered, rebuilt AH-1s and UH-1s can still do the job. Moreover, the marine refurbs contain many of the improvements built into the UH-60s and AH-64s."