This Bell UH-1B was built in 1963, delivered to the Army in October 1964 and assigned Bureau Number 63-12923. The early history is incomplete, but it was in Vietnam in early 1965 based upon two action reports:
- April 8, 1965 took three hits in the skid. The Aircraft Commander was Gordon L. Stone flying this helicopter on that date. Repaired at the unit level.
- April 27, 1965 it was brought down by small arms fire, resulting in 1 wounded.
It is believed that the helicopter was assigned to A/501 AVN during this first tour in Vietnam.
From the limited information available, it appears to have had major damage and was sent back to the USA for repairs. After being repaired, it remained in the USA.
October 1966 it was assigned to the 6th Army at Dugway Proving Grounds until March of 1967 when it was sent back to Vietnam with the lst Cav. Assigned to the 11th General Support Co. for 7 months and then with A/1/9 for three months until it was damaged in February 1968. Rebuilt by the 388th Trans. Co. in country. Then tranferred from the Army to the Navy Seawolves in November 1968
It was damaged and sent back to Bell Helicopter in Amarillo, TX for repairs from October 1969 to November 19, 1970 when it was returned to the Seavolves in Vietnam. Aircraft hours were 3198.0 at this time. It was assigned to Seawolf Detachment 9 and given Modex #324.
Names in the logbooks in 1970 and 1971:
- M.C. Turner, AZ3
- L. Havner, AZ2
- David M Charter, AZAM
- W.P. Bennett, AZ2
- T. E. Claytor, AZ1
- M. Lockey, AFCM
Upon further research of the records, the following was found to not be true for this helicopter. 64-13939 was the helicopter damaged by the 75 mm shell.
On May 28, 1971 it was damaged by a 75MM recoilless rifle while parked aboard YRBM-21 and was repaired in country.
The last flight in the logbooks was on February 29, 1972 by HA(L)-3 when they returned the helicopter to the 388th Transportation Company in Vietnam for shipment back to the USA.
It arrived back in the USA. in June 1972. Was in maintenance until October 1973 when it was loaned to NASA Langley Research Center until August 1975. No flights during this period.
Along with hundreds of other Hueys, it was placed in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ with 4390 total flight hours.
It was sold by the Army on September 23, 1991 to J. H. Helicopters in Tucson as part of a block of UH-1B helicopters for the sum of $611.57 each. Overseas Aircraft Support purchased the airframe as part of a package of 13 Hueys in 1995 where it remained in outdoor storage until 2007.
John Boucher of Overseas Aircraft decided to restore this UH-1B to the original Seawolf configuration for the Wings and Rotors Air Museum. This project involved thousands of man-hours for sheet metal, wiring, hydraulics, paint and assembly. The T53-L-11D engine was first started on May 7, 2008 and was hovered briefly on May 10, 2008, but FAA paperwork prevented it from flying and becoming part of Flying Thunder 2008.
UPDATE: October 2009. Seawolf 324 has all the correct FAA paperwork, registrations and airworthiness certificates. It is being prepared to fly again and the armament package is being assembled with a 7.62 Mini Gun on the left mount, a .50 cal door gun on the right side, rocket pods and much more. Watch for more updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment