The Uh-1 Essay

The Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955-1975, inspired many technological innovations, many of which are still important to modern technology (genesis). Many innovations caught the attention of the media and became icons of the Vietnam War. The jungle terrain of Vietnam was rough, wet, and thick. This terrain caused trouble to ground vehicles. The result of this was the extensive use of helicopters. The helicopter could fly over large amounts of jungle at quick speeds, and easily perform tasks without the need of a landing strip or airfield. US helicopters flew a total of more than 36 million operations during the Vietnam War. Many different models were produced, but the UH-1 Iroquois was the most produced and consequently, the most used and
Its original designation, HU-1, gave rise to the nickname “Huey”. The official designation changed to UH-1, however the nickname stayed. The huey first saw mass production in 1958. The aircraft was powered by a single Pratt& Whitney T-400-CP-400(ultimate special forces) (American warplanes) Over 7,000 Hueys were used during the war. (historyhuey) The huey was capable of a wide variety of configurations, including: troop transport, search and rescue, gunship, and casualty evacuation. The helicopter could also serve as a command platform to help military leaders oversee and direct operations. Almost half of the hueys made did not survive the war due, to both enemy fire and crashes. Approximately 2,117 crew members lost their lives due to these
The Uh-1E was the USMC version of the UH-1B. (http://www.warchapter.com/The_Huey_Chopper.html) All the magnesium parts of the helicopter were switched to aluminum to help fight the effects of salt water corrosion. This was unvaluable to marine units as many of their operatons were located near or on the ocean. The USMC used the UH-1E in the same fashons as the army, including using it to provide close air support to other helicopters and people during assault operations similar to the US Army’s “Hog” gunships. The UH-1E gunships were typically armed with two M60 machine guns and two or four 2.75inch rocket pods. The marines also adopted a version of the AH-1 Attack helicopter, renaming it the AH-1J Sea Cobra. The AH-1J had a twin-turbine 1530SHP T-400 engine opposed to the Ah-1’s T53-13. It also had contained magnesium parts like the Uh-1E to ifght the effectsa fo salt water. Like the marines, the United States Air Force (USAF) and United States Navy (USN) also used the Huey, customized to their own regulations. The United States allies, including Australia and South Vietnam, also used the Heuy for their own military operations during the Vietnam