U.S. Rotary Wing Aircraft virtual Tour – The evolution from K-2 Autogyro through UH-72 Lakota

U.S. Rotary Wing Aircraft virtual Tour – The evolution from K-2 Autogyro through UH-72 Lakota

Welcome to a narrated virtual tour that takes you through the progression of US military rotary Wing aircraft the tour involves helicopters Auto Gyros and any other US military rotary Wing aircraft that I personally photographed or videoed mostly at the national museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton

Ohio The National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola Florida the Smithsonian udvar hazy Center outside of Washington DC or at air shows enjoy the video Auto Gyros use rotary Wings to create lift but the rotors spin due to aerodynamics as the engine only provides Forward Motion but does not power the

Rotors this modified Colette K2 has a 90 MH cruising and 110 mph top speed but it could not hover as it had a 15 mph stall speed the US Army tested both the K2 and K3 versions of the Colette Auto jyro at rightfield in 1931 but they lacked the performance the

Army was looking for the Colette x60 was the last version of the US military’s unsuccessful association with auto Gyros during the 1930s and 40s its slow loitering speed and almost vertical takeoff and Landing capabilities met the military observation duties requirements however it’s an ability to hover limited payload ground resonance

Problems and the arrival of the sakori R4 helicopter kept it from production this vori XR 4C helicopter served as the Prototype for the R4 helicopter and is displayed at the Smithsonian uar hazi Center the R4 was sakori and the world’s first production helicopter with 130 hoverflies built 55 going to the Army

Air Force 23 to the Coast Guard and navy and 52 to Great Britain the Army Air Force used it mainly as a trainer but 20 served in the Pacific and Burma theaters during the last 16 months of World War II these 20 Army Air Force R fors performed leison and res resue duties

Including the first medical evacuations by helicopter the R4 hoverfly was also Naval aviation’s first helicopter and carried the designation hns it was intended only as a naval pilot trainer yet it soon assumed operational research and development roles participating in actual life-saving operations and served as the platform for developing hoisting equipment for search

Rescue in January 1944 the hoverfly executed the first helicopter Mission of Mercy flying through unfavorable weather to deliver blood plasma to victims of an explosion aboard the Destroyer USS Turner in New York Harbor this hns hoverfly is on display at the Naval Aviation Museum when compared to the R4 the

Sakori H5 dragonfly transported a greater useful load was faster and could fly higher the US Naval designation was h3s and it became the first helicopter employed on board aircraft carriers for plane guard duty standing by to recover Pilots forced to ditch during flight operations dragonflies were fitted with

Folding blades and an external hoist and began shipboard operations in 1948 replacing fixed wing airplanes during the Korean War it assumed a new role as a combat rescue helicopter rescuing down air crew and Performing medical evacuations of injured ground Personnel during its service life the Sikorski H5 dragonfly flew rescue and

Mercy missions throughout the world this photo is of a US Navy ho3s dragonfly and this one is of a US Air Force y3a dragonfly the sakori r6a hoverfly 2 helicopter was a refined version of their R4 hoverfly as it had a more powerful engine and redesigned body although primarily an observation

And leison helicopter hoverfly twos could carry litters in capsules on each side of the craft other special equipment included racks capable of carrying up to 650 lb of B BS and floats for water operations in 1946 the Navy issued its first contract for procurement of Bell’s model 47 helicopter which was first

Designated the htl Sue eventually redesignated h13 Sue with two covered litters mounted on their skids Marine cor Su saved many lives evacuating Battlefield casualties to Aid stations during the Korean War the lastu retired from Naval inventory in 1973 and all told the Navy procured 187 h3s this htl suit is displayed at the

Naval Aviation Museum early in 1957 the United States Air Force purchased two Bell h13 J Rangers to serve as presidential helicopters Bill added two new features to the presidential 8813 JS all metal rotor blades to increase the helicopter’s useful load and applied special anti-glare tinting to the huge plexiglass nose

Bubble during a simulated nuclear alert stage to test how quickly the chief executive and other government officials could depart Washington DC this h13 became the first helicopter to fly a president President Eisenhower and his dis at the Smithsonian udvari Center heler corporation’s model 360 helicopter featured a new romatic cyclic

Control system that provided a high degree of stability making the helicopter easier to control during the Korean war production shifted to the military with the Navy ordering 16 designated HTE while the Army ordered hundreds of them designated h 23 not shown they sered both branches in medical evacuation observation training

And utility roles with with the metac version carrying two external skid mounted litters the Naval Aviation Museum’s HTE entered service in 1951 the hup nickname retriever entered service in 1949 and served aboard every depl employed aircraft carrier at the height of its career its primary missions were search

And rescue and plane guard duties on board aircraft carriers its capabilities were enhanced by the installation of a rescue hoist that lowered through a floor hatch that was wide enough to allow for the passage of a loaded stretcher a later version the H2S not shown was equipped with dipping

Sonar and flew in the anti-submarine Warfare role the H3 held the distinction of being the first production helicopter equipped with an automatic pilot system though its unreliability precluded it from seeing much use the Naval Aviation Museum’s H3 was acquired in 1988 the Sikorski s55 military designation y19 solved the center of

Gravity problems of early your helicopters by Shifting the engine to the front and placing the passenger compartment beneath the rotor Hub this is the first s55 and served mainly at the sakori factory demonstrating improvements to the h19 series and generating flight data it is displayed at the smithsonian’s udvar hazi

Center the h19 Chickasaw holds the distinction of being the US Army’s first true transp sport helicopter it carried a 400lb capacity hoist mounted above the door and it could also carry an external sling capable of holding 2,000 lb during the Korean War Chickasaw became the Air Force’s primary rescue and medical evacuation

Helicopter this uh1 19B Chickasaw is displayed at the Air Force Museum Stanley Hiller experimented with ramjets mounted on the tips of a helicopter’s rotor blades hoping to make small Ramjet powered helicopters practical and affordable The heler hoe1 Hornet became the first production Ramjet helicopter and the Army and Navy flew a small

Number of these aircraft for a short time to test and evaluate the technology the noise generated by the ramjets was considerable but the most serious limitation was the ramjets consumed fuel at a rate of about 10 times what a piston engine would use originally a two- seat Design

Soori’s s52 Incorporated four seats in its military h5s configuration and saw use primarily with the Marine Corps during the Korean War as an observation and scouting aircraft and for day and night medical evacuations it carried wounded and internally mounted litters with an attendant and improvement over other light utility helicopters that required

The wounded to ride outside of the fuselage it featured an opening front bubble for easy access a rearm mounted engine configured to maximize internal carrying capacity and had improved control and stability which made it ideal for night flying in July 1952 the Naval Aviation Museum’s H5 s-1 shown here was one of

The first examples delivered to Observation Squadron vm6 which performed most helicopter born medical evacuations for wounded Marines in Korea and is one of only a handful of surviving Korean War helicopters this ho5 s-1 is displayed at the Smithsonian udvar hazi Center heler helicopter developed the Y

OE Roto cycle in 1953 to meet a US Marine Corp requirement they were looking for a single person collapsable helicopter to support Special Operations missions and that could be air dropped to Pilots trapped Behind Enemy Lines the Marine Corp did not accept the rocycle for military service because of

Its slow 52 mph speed its 40 m range its vulnerability to Small Arms fire and that Pilots could experience spatial distortions at all but very low altitudes this y oe1 Roto cycle is displayed at the Smithsonian udvar hazi Center designed by helicopter Pioneer Frank the veral h21 Workhorse first flew in April

1952 with two main rotors its long fuselage could carry either 20 fully equipped troops 12 litter patients and two medical attendants or heavy cargo later adaptations allowed the aircraft to perform rescue and assault operations under combat conditions originally called The Flying banana the h21 served with the US Air

Force the US Army the French navy the Royal Canadian Air Force and the West German air force the Sikorski uh34d seahorse was a major advancement over its predecessors and was primarily employed in two missions one was anti-submarine as it carried sonar equipment and homing Torpedoes and the second was as a

Transport that could carry up to 18 troops double the earlier helicopters it was the primary Marine assault helicopter in the Vietnam War from 1962 until the arrival of the turban power ch46 this Marine uh34d displayed at the Smithsonian udvar hazi Center never served overseas but has the markings of

Marine medium helicopter Squadron 163 which saw extensive combat in Vietnam although capable of carrying over 20 combat troops sakori ch37 Mojave proves its greatest value in the transport of vehicles and cargo loaded and unloaded through the clamshell nose doors but by the time US Marines went ashore at dang in the Republic of

Vietnam in March 1960 only two of the Marine corps’s 20 helicopter squadrons still flew them the Air Force acquired the command h43 husky primarily for local base rescue and for fighting aircraft fires a husky on Rescue alert could be airborne in approximately 1 minute with a fire suppression kit hanging beneath

Huskys often reached crash sits before ground Vehicles arrived and the foam from the fire suppression kit plus the powerful downwash of air from the rotors opened a path for Rescuers to reach trap crash victims they were the first US Air Force Rescue helicopters to arrive in Southeast Asia and the last to leave

Their air Crews saved more lives than combat than crws flying any other Air Force helicopter from 196 66 to 1970 they performed a total of 888 combat saves 434 air crew rescues and 545 non-air crew rescues Bell won the US Army design competition for a new medical evacuation

Helicopter powered by a turban engine that was designated h-1a iroy in September 1958 the first of 182 Hues rolled off the assembly lines in 1960 the Army promoted the idea of using helicopters rather than trucks when moving infantry around the battlefield and created the 11th Air Assault division to test the

Theory this concept was implemented several years later in Vietnam where Army and Marine Corps infantrymen employed air mobile tactics all branches of the US milit operated Hues in every corner of South Vietnam and into Cambodia and Laos this Bill uh1 P iroy served in South Vietnam with the Air Force’s 20th

Special Operation Squadron flying highly classified missions this Huey uh-1h iroy Smokey 3 is displayed at the Smithsonian udvar hazi Center in 1967 the Bell uh 1M iray was chosen to outfit helicopter attack Squadron light three the first Squadron of its type in Naval Aviation history three of the 27 Navy hh1 K

Versions of the eroy also served with Hal 3 nicknamed the SeaWolves Hal 3 served in concert with seals and navy Patrol bolts interdicting the enemy in the waters of the makong delta this helicopter is displayed at Patriots Point Vietnam experience and this hh1 K is displayed at the Naval Aviation

Museum the command h2c Sprite entered Naval service in 1962 providing the Navy with an all-weather helicopter capable of performing a variety of missions the sh2 anti-submarine configuration provided the na with its first dedicated anti-submarine Warfare helicopter capable of operating from vessels other than its aircraft carriers the sh2f version shown here was

Equipped with counter measures and additional equipment enabling it to conduct combat support and service Warfare missions within hostile environments the sh2f C Sprite was retired from active US Navy service in April 1994 and is exhibited at the Naval Aviation Museum sakori ch3 is the Air Force version of the Navy’s s61 amphibious

Transport helicopter and a veteran of the southeast Asia Wars this vehicle the Black Mariah was attached to the 20th helicopter Squadron painted flat black hence the nickname it was used for highly classified special missions this vh3 a c King flew presidents Nixon and Ford during the 1970s as part of the

Marine cors mission to provide short- range helicopter transportation to the president the Navy procured eight vh3 a versions of the s3c king that were luxuriously outfitted with carpeting radio telephones a wet bar and toilet facility they were extensively soundproof and armored with special protection provided for the aircraft’s electrical system and flight

Controls known as the Frog for its amphibian like appearance the Boeing ch46 SE Knight served as the US Marine corps’s primary assault helicopter with over four Decades of active service it was the Marine’s first turban powered assault helicopter and proved well suited to the challenging environment of South Viet Vietnam where

It began operations in 1966 by the end of US military operations in Vietnam over 100 cites had been lost to enemy fire since then the cites served in nearly every major military action and supported dozens of smaller operations ranging from Embassy evacuations to humanitarian and disaster

Relief the US Navy retired the sea night on 24th September 2004 replacing it with the mh6 S Seahawk the Smithsonian udvar haaz Center aircraft wears a special Heritage paint Scheme used in its final years of service that evokes its extensive Vietnam War service including a mission

That resulted in the award of a Navy cross the Marine Corps is the primary user of the sakori c53 SE stallion head heav lift helicopter sea stallions have been in use since 1966 and are still used today it is the largest and heaviest helicopter in the US Military and can

Either carry 37 combat equipped Marines 24 wounded Personnel on litters or 8,000 lb of cargo procured in 1968 and designated th-57 C Ranger the helicopter remain Remains the platform in which all Navy Marine Corps and Coast Guard helicopter Pilots are trained prospective Pilots spend approximately 106 hours flying the sea

Ranger before receiving their wings although primarily used for helicopter Flight Training these aircraft were also used for photo Chase and utility missions its retirement began in 2023 and is expected to conclude in 2025 the o58 kyowa is a family of single engine single rotor military helicopters used for observation utility and direct fire

Support the O 58a kyowa is a four-place observation helicopter having a two-place pilot seating setup although the controls in the left seat are designed to be removed to carry a passenger up front during its Vietnam deployment it was fitted with the m 134 Minigun a 7.62 mm electrically operated machine

Gun this Bell oh 58a kyowa is displayed at the maps Air Museum adjacent to the akan Canton Airport in Northeast Ohio sikorski’s hh3 Jolly Green Giant was a ch3 modified for combat rescue missions with armor defensive armorment self ceiling fuel tanks a rescue hoist and inflight refueling capability with a watertight hole the

Jolly grein giant could land on water and its large rear doors and ramp permitted easy loading and unloading they performed combat search and rescue missions to recover downed Airmen during the Southeast Asian Wars a quarter of a century later jolly green Giants participated in Operation Desert Storm and they provided rescue

Support in the early years of the space shuttle program the Marine Corp is belill a1j CA Cobra helicopters flew combat sorties in the last chapter of America’s experience in Vietnam its last Vietnam action covered the evacuation of the US Embassy in Saigon in April 1975 this ah1 JC Cobra was displayed at

The Naval Aviation Museum the a1w Super Cobra entered service in 1986 supporting the Marine Corps operating from Naval Amphibious Warfare carriers and forward operating bases they served on the front lines during Operation Desert Storm where they destroyed 97 tanks and 104 armored personnel carriers and vehicles it continued operations in the

Global war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq this a1w is displayed at the Naval Aviation Museum Air Force Special Operation Forces use the improved sakori MH 53 pavelow Forest to covertly enter enemy territory they were capable of operating day or night or in bad weather conducting long range low-level missions

To insert extract and resupply Special Operations forces this mh-53 pav Force served in Vietnam as an hh-53 then flew many more combat engagements in operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom before it was retired it is displayed at the Air Force Museum the Navy based its new Maritime helicopter requirements on the Army’s

Uh60 Blackhawk to achieve commonality and lower cost maintaining 83% commonality with the uh60a while the sakori sh6 Seahawk specializes in anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare several Seahawk variants exist each fulfilling a unique role the sh6b has been a deadly part of the Navy’s Arsenal since the 1970s it is packed with an array of

Advanced zers and avionics incapable of carrying a variety of ordinance it entered operational service in 1984 with its first operational deployment in 1985 and is being replaced by the Navy’s newest helicopter the mh6 this sh6b Seahawk is displayed at the National Aviation Museum the Eurocopter uh 72 Lakota is a

Twin engine helicopter with a single four bladed main rotor in October 2006 American Eurocopter was awarded a production contract for 345 aircraft to replace the Aging Bell uh1 andv iroy and the bell o58 a andc kyota helicopters in the US Army and Army National Guard fleets the uh 72 performs Logistics and

Support missions within the United States for Homeland Security Disaster Response missions and medical evacuations I hope you enjoyed this narrated virtual tour covering the evolution of US military rotary Wing aircraft links to similar tours are found in the comment section below this video and more are added as they become

Available this page may show you YouTube recommended links to similar videos

Welcome to a narrated virtual tour that takes your through the progression of U.S. military Rotary Wing Aircraft. The tour involves Helicopters, autogyros and any other U.S. military rotary wing aircraft that I personally photographed or videoed, mostly at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center outside of Washington DC or at airshows. Enjoy the video.

Other video’s in this series that you might enjoy.
U.S. Attack Aircraft: https://youtu.be/wpZaSUROZHM
U.S. Bomber Aircraft: https://youtu.be/gGT_H3-OsfU
U.S. Propeller Powered Fighter Aircraft: https://youtu.be/p2Iudv58vWc
U.S. Fighter Jet Aircraft: https://youtu.be/2UFxLiGfDHc