I just though I might put up a few figures for the UH-1 in Vietnam. These are calculated from tables provided by Simon Dunston in his excellent Vietnam Chppers book. The following stats are for the peak years from 1968-1970.
Total sorties: 14,353,760 UH-1D/H
1,564,000 UH-1B/C/M
Total flying hours: 4,599,307 UH-1H
702,159 UH-1B/C/M
Total UH-1 losses due to both operational and combat causes 1968-1970:1,507
That works out to 1 aircraft lost for every 10,563 sorties or 1 in every 3,518 flight hours.
I for one was totally stunned by the total number of sorties flown in just three years and I have to say that the loss to flight time ratio seems pretty darn good. Anybody have data for the more recent conflicts and the Blackhawk? Anyway, I thought some of you might be interested in the data.
Ray