Other Unusual Vietnam Helicopters. (No Hueys Allowed)

Andy,

  You beat me to the punch on this thread.  You should be aware that the OH-6 armed to the teeth with the M200 pods and M5 was done just as a what if shot.  The bird couldn't get off the ground with all that stuff on it!  I know this configuration never flew because I rememeber the story on the unit web site.  As I, like you, have visited many web sites, I can't recall the specific unit, but I bet someone will point it out soon.

   Ray
 

Ray,

Sorry mate, i just keep coming across these great shots of other helos and dont have anywhere to post them. Im sure you have come across loads too. Seems a shame to let them go to waste.

I found it !! was just doing a search of M5s on 0H-6s and up it popped.

""OH-6G" was the creation of the Maintenance Section of "The Real Cav", B Troop 7/17th Air Cavalry Squadron, which was stationed near Pleiku in early 1972. Armed with a 40mm grenade launcher in a nose turret, and two 19-tube 2.75 inch rocket launchers, the "OH-6G" was ready to take on anything. Unfortunately, the weight of the armament kept the little bird from taking off."

http://vietnamresearch.com/air/helo/

I was pretty sure it was to good to be true, a great "what if " photo though!

A couple of 0H-6 side mounted grenade launcher shots to cheer us up lol.

Andy

"Big Mother" a CH-54A of the 1st Cav being readed for it's third bomber mission with the 10,000lb to clear a LZ.

And let's not forget those ACH-47A "Guns-a Go-Go" birds

Here's a 11th Air Cav OH-13 with some nice nose art from the collection of Ronald Scheck of the 176th AHC.

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Grandad,

Thats a great shot! i never realised that they were used to drop those "Instant LZ" daisy cutter bombs. Ive only ever seen them being pushed out the back of C-130s, though i think they were the larger 15000lb bombs.

Trying to make out whats been written on the bomb..Something "headache" ?? are your eyes better than mine?

Do you know which Air Cav unit "Big Mother" would have been attached to? would it have been the 15th Supply and Service Battalion? or the 15th Transportation Battalion?? i have no idea when it comes down to CH-54/A's.

Thanks for posting the picture.

Andy 

Hey Andy. I've got that same picture in a pictorial history of the air war in Vietnam.

In that time era, of which I was a part (telling my age), there was a commercial on television for Excedrin pain reliever. They used the lead in line "Excedrin headache #3 or 8 or whatever" then they would show something half-a$$ed humorous, like a kid banging cymbals or something of that nature. That is what is written on the bomb, "Excedrin Headache #10,003" as this was the third 10,000 pounder dropped by "Big Mother".

Sorry this was so drawn out. 

Don't forget the HH-43 Pedro.  Sorry, husky.  No, keep it Pedro. 

I'd post a picture, but I don't know how.

chopperfan wrote:

Hey Andy. I've got that same picture in a pictorial history of the air war in Vietnam. In that time era, of which I was a part (telling my age), there was a commercial on television for Excedrin pain reliever. They used the lead in line "Excedrin headache #3 or 8 or whatever" then they would show something half-a$$ed humorous, like a kid banging cymbals or something of that nature. That is what is written on the bomb, "Excedrin Headache #10,003" as this was the third 10,000 pounder dropped by "Big Mother". Sorry this was so drawn out.

478th HHCo had an attached element to the 15th Trans Bn.

Chief SNake 

Heh heh heh...

Just wait until I get back to my computer.  

Jon 

......more Skycrane pics please

Rich

Cobrahistorian wrote:

Heh heh heh... Just wait until I get back to my computer.     Jon

Me thinks Jon has some photo's for us

grandadjohn wrote:

Cobrahistorian wrote: Heh heh heh... Just wait until I get back to my computer.     Jon    Me thinks Jon has some photo's for us

ME thinks you are probably very accurate in your assumption. 

Jon,

  What about those UH-2 pics? 

 Ok here's some pics of the grandady of all helo gun systems, the XM-1 also known as the "Old Ironsides Kit"

It was a twin Browning 30 cal system designed by CWO Clem H. Womack for troop D 1st squadron, 1st Cavalry, 1st Armored Division.  

  Here is the documentation that acompanied the pics (they are part of a study on early helo weapons systems):

The following set of pictures is basiclly a walkaround of the system on an OH-13:

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The notes on the picture were there when I took the photo.

 This last shot is one of my favorites because I believe there is a good chance that this is the first photo documentation of a helicopter gun run!

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Enjoy! 

             Ray
 

Cobrahistorian wrote:

Methinks I have some of the oddest Cobra photos around...

And ME thinks I am looking forward to them!!! 

chopperfan wrote:

Cobrahistorian wrote: Methinks I have some of the oddest Cobra photos around... And ME thinks I am looking forward to them!!!

And me thinks the same

Randie,

Thanks for putting the "excedrin" thing to bed for me, i would never have got it. You have saved me from pulling any more contorted faces at the monitor trying to work out what it said.

ikar01,

I hadnt forgot the HH-43 Husky, Check the list .

Chief Snake,

Thanks for the 478th HHC info, Any rough idea on how many 478th cranes would be in use with 15th Trans Bn at any one time?

Ray,

Great OH-13 shots and info. I agree it would be nice to see some unusual Seasprite pics.

Rich,

I dont have many cool shots of Skycranes but i found another shot of GrandadJohn's "Big Mother" with that bomb

Jon,

Cant wait to see your Cobra pics. As ever, im always hunting for new helicopter video sites. Pictures are great but its nice to see the helos in action. I found another site and its got a clip of a Cobra becoming a victim of "Brownout" you also get to see the cockpit windows being blown out for the crew to escape! thought you might be interested.

http://www.griffin-helicopters.co.uk/videos/playonevideo.asp?videokey=1612

And a clip of a Skycrane " losing it" for a second.. (turn your speakers down its LOUD!)

http://www.griffin-helicopters.co.uk/videos/playonevideo.asp?videokey=393

There are loads of other Helicopter clips on there (some very sobering!) Anyway.. Enjoy.

Andy.

Hello Guys!

I am glad to see that interest in the unusual has spread from Hueys to other vietnam choppers as well! I think we all eagerly await Jon's Cobra pics :) So, to give You something to do while we wait I got a couple of pics that might be of interest to You. First some addtional info on the ''Big Mother''. She was a CH-54A 67-18418 and, as previously noted, in service with 478th HHC. I found a colour version of the photo of Big Mother being prepped for bombing mission. The photo was taken in 1968 at Da Nang.

And a couple of rather dramatic images of ''Excedrin Headache'' on its way towards the target. I did some digging and apparently the whole idea didn't live up to expectations as bombing accuracy wasn't really good and only one of the four bombs dropped by the Big Mother produced a usefull clering for a LZ. Nevertheless, the sight of that thing going off must have been spectacular...

Now, from the biggest to the smallest :) I found a couple of pics of the Loach with the door mounted mini. As far as I can tell it is the same system as the one depicted in Andy's post. The OH-6A ''Borrowed Time'' was in service with the D troop 3rd Squadron 4th Cavalry (the Centaurs). Note the addition of M60 flash suppressors to the minigun barrels. Hope this pics will help anybody who decides to build this one-of-a-kind Loach.

Enjoy,

Marko

Marko,

WOW!!!

Where the hell do you find your pics lol?? i want in on the secret . Either you have a search engine over there in Slovenia that none of us have ever heard of,or you have insider information .

Great pictures mate , Thanks for sharing the results of the hard work you have so obviously put in to your helicopter research.

Awsome stuff.

Andy.

(PS. The OH-6 in the door mounted Minigun picture i posted was from the 25th Avn Bn and called "Diamondhead" i dont have any tail number info.. sorry. But i think we can safely say that we have a two-of-a-kind loach now).

skypirate1 wrote:

Randie, Thanks for putting the "excedrin" thing to bed for me, i would never have got it. You have saved me from pulling any more contorted faces at the monitor trying to work out what it said. ikar01, I hadnt forgot the HH-43 Husky, Check the list . Chief Snake, Thanks for the 478th HHC info, Any rough idea on how many 478th cranes would be in use with 15th Trans Bn at any one time?  Ray, Great OH-13 shots and info. I agree it would be nice to see some unusual Seasprite pics. Rich, I dont have many cool shots of Skycranes but i found another shot of GrandadJohn's "Big Mother" with that bomb Jon, Cant wait to see your Cobra pics. As ever, im always hunting for new helicopter video sites. Pictures are great but its nice to see the helos in action. I found another site and its got a clip of a Cobra becoming a victim of "Brownout" you also get to see the cockpit windows being blown out for the crew to escape! thought you might be interested. http://www.griffin-helicopters.co.uk/videos/playonevideo.asp?videokey=1612 And a clip of a Skycrane " losing it" for a second.. (turn your speakers down its LOUD!) http://www.griffin-helicopters.co.uk/videos/playonevideo.asp?videokey=393 There are loads of other Helicopter clips on there (some very sobering!) Anyway.. Enjoy. Andy.

The cranes were new to the 1st Cav in 1964, records indicate 4-6 airframes were in use in 1965-66. As more cranes became available new companies were raised, the 273rd and 355th. By 1968 it appears that each company may have had as many as 9 airframes each. The 478th was split between the 1st Cav and the 101st Abn Divisions with 4 aircraft each. The 159th Avn Bn supported the cranes within the 101st Div.

Chief Snake 

Thanks for the new photo's of Big Mother and the additional info.

OK, here are a couple of Seasprite photo's

Tested by the Army in the early 60's as a gunship, another nearly identical model competed against the Cobra, but lost in the later 60's

Another testbed SeaSprite.

These aircraft were returned to the manufacter after testing. Please note they did not serve in Vietnam

Grandad,

  Nice pics!  I thought I might add a few others of armed AH-2's

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 Here's 9786 before it's Army paint job:

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All of the above are courtesy of the Army Aviation Museum archives.

  Ray
 

Man!  I get in the car for a couple hours and you guys steal my thunder!  I was gonna start off with pics of the AH-2!

Oh well.  After dinner I'll throw up some coooooool AH-1 pics. 

Jon 

Jon,

  I gave you a nice opening to post those UH-2 pics, but you disappeared and Grandad put his up so I HAD to put mine up too!  Sorry about that, but it sounded as if you had Cobras on your brain , not Seasprites!

    Ray

No worries Ray!

That was said very tongue-in-cheek!

Anyhow, here are a couple pics, as promised.  The first one is N209J, the prototype Cobra, although not as you're used to seeing her.  This configuration was done in the early 70s to test out the TOW missile system on the Cobra.  From what I know, it didn't have any live missile systems on it, just mockups of the pods, sensors and gun.

The next two are my favorites, and as Chief Snake can attest, I'm a bit hooked on these two. The first is the CONFICS (CObra Night Fighter Imaging Combat System) AH-1G, which took the Huey INFANT system and modded it for the Snake.  The second is the SMASH (Southeast-asia Multisensor Armament System Helicopter) Cobra that took night fighting to the next level. 

Jon