Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Utility)

Snapshot

Background

The remarkable Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) was the quintessential all-purpose military helicopter for over three decades. Since its delivery in 1959, all four U. S. armed services, as well as international forces, utilized the UH-1 for missions ranging from mountain rescue to troop transport, from anti-armor to anti-submarine warfare. The Iroquois got the nickname “Huey” from its original Army designation, the HU-1. It was re-designated UH-1 in 1962, under the unified tri-service designation scheme.

Bell produced two major versions of the UH-1: the single-engine Models 204 and 205, each with several variants. Models 204 and 205 were skid-equipped helicopters with a single two-blade, all-metal, anti-torque tail rotor mounted on the left side of the tail-boom. The all-metal, semi-monocoque fuselage could accommodate two crewmen and seven passengers in the Model 204, and two crewmen and eleven passengers in the Model 205. These UH-1 models served as gunships, in addition to casualty evacuation, search and rescue, vertical envelopment, attack transport, anti-submarine warfare, and general utility roles during their long service life.

Twin-engine models of the UH-1, Models 212 and 412, possessed enough differences from the earlier models to warrant considering them two separate aircraft.

Read our “The Mystery of Huey 411” and “Huey’s 705 (Unplanned) Last Day in Vietnam” blog posts to read more about the Huey.