Perhaps the most familiar images of the UH-1 Iroquois are from the many war movies showing the helicopter transporting Soldiers in Vietnam. True to these pictures, the helicopter commonly referred to as Huey forged an iconic presence in Air Force history. The rotary-winged aircraft, which was first flown by the Army as the HU-1 in 1956, also was used by the Air Force’s 20th Special Operations Squadron in South Vietnam, where it was converted into a UH-1P gunship and equipped with two rocket pads and two mini-guns, according to Brett Stolle, a curator at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Today, the Air Force uses the light-lift utility helicopter to support Global Strike Command missile wings, survival school training, test and evaluation, and search and rescue operations.
This feature will showcase the Huey’s creation, its characteristics, role in Vietnam, adoption by the Air Force, and how it is used today and expected uses in the future.
View a timeline of the Huey’s history
See the Air Force’s Factsheet on the UH-1N Iroquois
BIRTH OF THE HUEY
Bell XH-40, a prototype of Bell UH-1 (U.S. Army archive photo)
In 1956, the Army and Bell Helicopter began development of the UH-1 Iroquois with a new Lycoming T-53 engine from 1955 trials with the Bell Model 204. The military’s first turbine-powered helicopter flew on Oct. 22, 1956, and the Army deployed it in Vietnam in 1963.
The Army initially designated the helicopter HU-1, conforming to the two-letter designation system, which gave it the nickname “Huey.” The Department of Defense reversed the designation to UH-1 in 1962, but the nickname stuck, with Bell even casting Huey on the helicopter’s anti-torque pedals.
The Army retired the Huey in January 2011.
HUEYS IN VIETNAM
Symbol of U.S. Troops
U.S. Air Force helicopters insert special operations teams into Cambodia. Communist supplies moved from the port of Kompong Som, through Cambodia, to South Vietnam along the Sihanouk Trail. Until 1969, this artery, named after Cambodian leader Prince Sihanouk, was left largely untouched. (U.S. Air Force archive photo)
As the jeep became the symbol of the World War II Soldier, the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, commonly known as the Huey, symbolized aircrews of all four services in Vietnam.
The Huey was the workhorse helicopter of the war with a variety of missions, including air assault, armed patrol and escort, command and control, troop and cargo transport, combat reconnaissance support, amphibious assault, light utility missions, and medical evacuation.
About 7,000 of 16,000 Hueys produced since the 1950s were flown in Southeast Asia. While the Huey earned a reputation for its adaptability and versatility, it also proved to be vulnerable. The Army lost almost 2,250 helicopters to enemy fire during the war, and more than half were Hueys, according to John Sotham’s article, “Huey,” in the Air and Space Magazine in May 2000. More Hueys were downed in Vietnam than any other aircraft. However, they were valuable in medical evacuations, as well as air assaults and transporting troops.
A personal connection with the Huey remains for many Vietnam veterans.
“I can also attest to you that it was not just a machine, it became a part of us,” Brig. Gen. Alberto Jimenez said when the Army National Guard retired the UH-1 Huey in a ceremony at Fort Myer, Va., in 2009. Jimenez was an attack helicopter pilot in Vietnam with more than 700 combat hours, as well as the Maryland Air National Guard assistant adjutant general and the Guard’s senior aviator. “It was our lives. It was our friend. It was the aircraft that took us in and out of Vietnam, and it was also the aircraft that saved many countless lives as we rushed the wounded and the sick out of the battlefield.”
HUEYS IN THE AIR FORCE
The iconic helicopter’s presence began in Vietnam but still continues various roles today
An Air Force UH-1N flies over Washington, D.C., in 1970. (U.S. Air Force archive photo)
The Air Force began using the UH-1F for Strategic Air Command missile support in 1964. Some UH-1Fs were specially modified for covert operations and were re-designated the UH-1P.
Hueys flew dangerous and highly-classified missions with the 20th Special Operations Squadron that put special operations personnel in Laos and Cambodia.
“While the Huey is an iconic symbol of the Southeast Asia war, most people only know about its use as an airborne assault and medical evacuation helicopter,” said Jeff Duford, a museum curator at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
A Huey on display in the museum shows the UH-1F flown by Capt. James Fleming during a rescue mission in Vietnam on Nov. 26, 1968. Fleming faced intense enemy fire to rescue a small reconnaissance team that was about to be overrun by a considerably larger Viet Cong force. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for the mission.
The twin-engine UH-1N first appeared in the Air Force inventory in 1970 and replaced the F model in the early 1980s. The Air Force also produced an HH-1N version as a base rescue helicopter, which was used by the 20th SOS.
Today, the Air Force uses UH-1Ns for search and rescue and in the intercontinental ballistic missile mission as a utility transport between bases to missile launch sites in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming.
HUEY TODAY AND TOMORROW
Students from the 23rd Flying Training Squadron at Fort Rucker, Ala., piloting UH-1H Iroquois helicopters, practice formation-flight patterns. The 23rd FTS is the third and final phase of undergraduate pilot training before the student pilots can obtain their wings. It is the Air Force’s primary source of helicopter pilot training for special operations, combat search and rescue, missile support and distinguished visitor airlift missions. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Anthony Jennings)
In 2010, the Air Force announced plans to replace its 62 UH-1Ns with 93 commercially available, common vertical lift support platform helicopters. However, funding to replace the Hueys became a problem in the 2013 defense budget, and Air Force Global Strike Command is now considering flying the Huey 30 more years. The command is now seeking input from defense companies on how to increase the 50-year-old helicopter’s endurance, range, speed, survivability, navigation and communications capabilities. The Air Force uses the Hueys for missile base security, search and rescue, and to shuttle government officials and visiting heads of state around Washington.
The helicopter’s fighting days are likely behind it, though, as today’s enemies are better equipped than the Viet Cong were in the 1960s and early ‘70s.
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