Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “AH-64 Apache: Boeing’s Tank-Busting Helo” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/ah-64-apache/.
AH-64 Apache: Boeing’s Tank-Busting Helo
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
TEXASforLIFE
SAINT
Who the hell wants to sit near the intake!
Domar1291
Master Class
Well i assume you need a run outta poop town
I was a helicopter pilot with the First Cav in Nam 69-70.
After flight school - and before going to Nam - I was assigned to the Aircraft Maintenance Officer Course (aka AMOC). We were shown a video of the Apache during its flight demo for the Army. All of us pilots were practically drooling over what we saw it could do.
It was not “developed after” Nam - in fact, the ‘64’ in its designator stands for the design year. It is officially the AH-64: the ‘A’ is for Attack, the ‘H’ is for Helicopter, and ‘64’ was the design year. Congress and the LBJ administration quashed the program because they wanted to spend the money on other things. President Reagan and his administration got the Apache on line.
After flight school - and before going to Nam - I was assigned to the Aircraft Maintenance Officer Course (aka AMOC). We were shown a video of the Apache during its flight demo for the Army. All of us pilots were practically drooling over what we saw it could do.
It was not “developed after” Nam - in fact, the ‘64’ in its designator stands for the design year. It is officially the AH-64: the ‘A’ is for Attack, the ‘H’ is for Helicopter, and ‘64’ was the design year. Congress and the LBJ administration quashed the program because they wanted to spend the money on other things. President Reagan and his administration got the Apache on line.
In the summer of 2005 we were running missions from BIAP to Abu Ghraib prison, and on our way back to BIAP a fuel truck had overturned at a roundabout on the main road into BIAP. There were 20 foot walls on either side of the road, so there was no turning around and finding a new route. So here we are, stuck in a mile long line of traffic, and haji decides to start walking mortars into our position. They were pretty inaccurate at first, but after they got the range they started walking the rounds directly at the traffic jam. We’re stuck, can’t go forward or backward, so I climbed down from the turret and hoped haji ran out of rounds before he dropped one right on top of my ACH. After about 10 rounds dropped, two Apaches came screaming over my head, launching rockets and hammering the **** out of haji with the chain gun. It was about the most glorious thing I had seen up to that point in my life, and we were extremely grateful those pilots showed up when they did. Turned those ****ers into red smears on the ground, and we didn’t have to worry about dying that day. I will always and forever be grateful for the AH-64 Apache gunship.
Bassbob
Emissary
Thank you gentleman for your service to our country and the freedom and way of life we all take for granted. Our debt to you can never be repaid.
Talyn
SAINT
Yes on the first two, BUT Negative on the design year number.
(4) Design Number: Each vehicle type and basic mission symbol is used to form a separate series of design numbers. E.g., all helicopters are designated in a single numerical sequence, while "normal" aircraft are designated in separate series according to their basic mission.
The Apache began as the Model 77 developed by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra. The prototype YAH-64 was first flown on 30 September 1975.
Boeing AH-64 Apache - Wikipedia
If your opinion was the case, then the AH-1 Cobra was designed in 1901. So, as noted above that's not the case.
The AH-64 was the result of the Advanced Attack Helicopter program that was initiated in 1972, after the AH-56 Cheyenne was cancelled in 1972.
Advanced Attack Helicopter - Wikipedia
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KillerFord1977
SAINT
Army still should have brought on board the Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche in the ‘90’s