Brought to my attention by fellow Scout crew chief, Gary Swartz. It’s amazing how the many variants of the original OH-6A we crewed have served our nation well over so many years around the world. I doubt any replacement chopper will truly replace it! – Bear
The ‘Ferrari’ of US special-operations helicopters may soon be headed out of service
Business Insider – July 7, 2021
My 1st OH-6A Jody at SocTrang. Original crew chief was Lester Nash – Roger “Bear” Young
Nice picture of ‘Jody’ Roger, she looks a lot better than the last time I saw her. (I experienced a ‘tail rotor vortex’ while dropping a grenade into a sampan.)
The retirement of the ‘Little Bird’ would be a step backwards in my opinion. I flew UH-1As and UH-1B gunships my first tour. We would load the Bravo model guns so heavy that they couldn’t pull a 3″ hover. The shaft horsepower of the Bravo model was allegedly 960 SHP. I say allegedly as the engines were constantly pulling max power and burning out the hot ends. The dust, heat and humidity of ‘Nam also took its toll.
The ‘Little Bird’, an OH-6C, came with 950 SHP, essentially the same power we had in the old Bravo model Hueys. (the tail rotor vortex issue had also been fixed)
My favorite A/C was the Cobra, but I always thought the UH-1M would have made a great gunship, especially for air assaults. However, if the OH-6C had been available, I would likely have preferred it as it would have been so much more maneuverable and could carry the armament of the Cobra.
Things have changed over the years, but to see the venerable OH-6 retired, I can’t imagine something that could replace it.
Terry,
Thanks for the insights, I had NO idea they were pumping out that kind of SHP today, that’s incredible!!
When I took the picture of Jody, I was an FNG and learning about the OH-6A since I trained on the OH-58 at Ft. Rucker.