History of the Huey

The first flight of the Huey was by Pilot, Floyd Carlson on October 22, 1956 in Fort Worth.

UH-1 aircraft have totaled more than 27 million flight hours since Oct. 22, 1956 when the first model of the huey was flown.

Army UH-1's totaled 7,531,955 flight hours in the Vietnam War between October 1966 and the end of 1975.

The Huey Cobra (AH-1G) had 1,038,969 flight hours in Vietnam

The Huey and the Cobra have more combat flight time than any other aircraft in the history of warfare.

Bell Helicopter built 10,005 Hueys from 1957 to 1975. Of the 10,005 production Hueys, 9,216 went to the U.S. Army, 127 to the U.S. Marine Corps, 79 to the U.S. Air Force and 42 to the U.S. Navy.  The rest went to other countries.

Today, There are only 113 B models registered. 9 E models, 12 F models, 10 Training F Models, 1 HH-1K, 8 TH-1L’s, 14 UH-1L, 3 M models, 1 P model, 5 civilian 205’s and 547 UH-1H’s.   There are zero registered for all other makes and models of the military variant hueys, leaving only 723 Military varient Huey models in all registered today. 


The Huey remains a legend as the most successful rotorcraft in Aviation History.

 

Model 204
Model 205
Vietnam Helicopter Losses

Helicopter Losses During the Vietnam War


There are specific tail numbers for 11,827 total helicopters that served in the Vietnam War from all branches of the service. 
1,925 Hueys were lost in combat, while 1,380 were lost in operational accidents. The high losses reflected their heavy use rather than a fragility of the aircraft, with the heavy use leading to crew fatigue that contributed to the high accident rate.
Records indicate that 7,013 Hueys served in the Vietnam War. Almost all of those were with the Army.
           
Huey’s       Served      Destroyed     Pilots KIA   Crew KIA
UH-1                80                    80                    36                      17
UH-1A              8                      1
UH-1B             729                  376                 139                    144
UH-1C             696                  415                 167                    158
UH-1D            1,926               1,028               224                    247
UH-1E             156                  100                  39                      41
UH-1F             31                    18                      4                         5
UH-1H             3,375              1,285               457                    487
UH-1L              2
UH-1M             5                      5                        3
UH-1N             2                      2
UH-1P              3                      3                        1
                          -----                  -----                   -----                    -----
Total:               7,013               3,305               1,074              1,103

 
Total Pilots served in Vietnam War                                         40,000
Total Helicopters Served in Vietnam War                              11,827
Total helicopters destroyed in the Vietnam War was            5,086
Total Huey’s served in the Vietnam War                                  7,013
Total Huey’s destroyed in Vietnam War                                   3,305
Total Pilots Killed in Vietnam in all types of helicopters:      2,202
Total Pilots Killed in Huey’s                                                       1,074
 
Vietnam has been judged the "first helicopter war", and the Huey remains a symbol of the conflict far more than any other weapon, from images of Hueys dropping troops into landing zones, to pictures of Hueys thrown off aircraft carriers during the frantic final evacuation.

The UH-1's will always be a common sight in many of the world's military forces, and are still in first-line service in the US Marines.

The USAF historians have claimed that nearly all battlefield casualties were evacuated by UH-1 helicopters.
 
 
               


References:
                http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.htm, Gary Roush
                Aircraftone.com
                http://www.helis.com/60s/huey.php
                http://www.huey.co.uk/imagegallery/huey509-5.php