This is an awesome webpage.
A part of Vietnam and aviation history I knew nothing about till today.
Enjoy!

gunsagogo.org/

Interesting!!  I’ve never heard of Chinook gunships.

Thanks for the link.


[shock]

What a machine!  I never knew they had Chinook gunships.  The story "From A Grunt's Eyes" was pretty incredible.  It would be quite a sensation to have that helicopter hovering overhead, but then with it spewing all that firepower at the enemy- wow!

God Bless those old dudes. And they still know how to party. [:D]

[img]gunsagogo.org/0004/0008.jpg[/img]

neat link, was interesting, never seen those before.

Very interesting, neer knew of them either.

I like their logo, pretty cool!
[img]http://gunsagogo.org/skull.jpg[/img]

BTT for the night crew

They should bring these back, they sure seem like they'd be damn handy for what they're doing these days.  Pretty mean ass little (big) gunship...

Yeah, they were a step in development which started from the OH-13 with .30cal Brownings on it.

The reason for the ACH-47 in the first place was the 47's lift capacity.  At the time the standard helicopter gunship was the UH-1C, or "Charlie model", which seriously lacked power.

In a hot or high altitude enviroment, rotary wing aircraft get adversely effected a great deal (as recently seen in Afghnanistan, where CH-47's had to do most of the lifting, because the high altitute limited the UH-60's).  Because of the atmospheric conditions in Vietnam, the early Hueys (C's and D's had the same engine) were underpowered.

The A model Chinook (while no great performer compared to the later models) was able to haul a great deal more than the Hueys, and armament is heavy, so the logical step was to arm a Chinook and see what happened.  A Chinook could obviously carry more guns and ammo, but it could also carry more fuel.  A Charlie model Huey would have to go light on fuel in order to carry full-up armament. That time on station means alot to the guys on the ground.

A larger weapons suite, more ammo, armor, two engines, and more range.  A pretty good combination.

Once the L13B engine was fitted to the Huey (resulting in the H model slick and the M model gunship) the additional horsepower and the far better power curve of the new engine made the weight problem less acute.

The G model Cobra is nothing more than a skinny "Mike model" Huey.  Same hydraulics, rotor, even L13B engine.  

The later Army Cobras had the '703 engine (a modified L13B) which further increased HP and improved the power curve further.

The ACH-47's actually pointed the way for the post-Vietnam development of helicopters in many ways.  The post-Vietnam analysis indicated that heilcopters should be larger, more powerful, and more heavily armored.  

Generally speaking, "fast movers" (such as fighters, etc) have gone the path of very little resistance to hits, but trading that off for the advantage of killing faster.  This makes sense considering the enviroment they work in.  The idea is that if you hit first, you have a better chance of survival because you can't really take a hit yourself.  

Post-VN helicopters however went the other way.  It became obvious that helicopters were going to take hits no matter what, so survivability had to be built into them.  

The Soviets took the US experience (and the ACH-47 to a great degree) and developed very large, and heavily armored helicopter gunships.  This fell in well with their experience with all ground attack craft from WWII which they heavily armored.  Considering the number of US helicopters shot down, and the ballistic "intolerance" of those (i.e. Hueys) the Soviet approach made perfect sense for them.

The US went a similar route and made bigger, more bullet-proof aircraft (the AH-64 taking a direct RPG hit is proof of that), though more typical "American" in design and style (i.e. not as rough as the Mi-24).  The Cheyenne was huge compared to the Cobra (I've personally climbed all over the two remaining ones that still exist) and the Apache is about the same size as the Cheyenne.

While tactically, the ACH-47's didn't make a big mark, technically they really were one of the most important steps taken in combat helicopters.  Those six Chinooks did more in the development of armed helicopter warfare than they've been given credit.  

Ross

great site, thanks.


-HS