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As some of you may know I am one of the last Utility Helicopter Maintenance NCOs in the Army....well ok, there are others but they are Tangos that work on Huey's and I'm the last one with a Primary of 15M ( the new 67N).
Anyway, the Army's plan was to replace the Huey with the Blackhawk, and they began an accelerated retirement schedule. for the Huey about ten years ago. Then the Governors of the various states got togeather and said " We need that sexy new Blackhawk , we don't want the Huey". All of a sudden every darn thing in the world was "going wrong" with them. N2 spur gear issues, 42 degree g/b issues, then the famous mast issues ( which they had to test twice so that they made sure ALL of them failed).
Then the Governors of the various states said "Great! Now that we have got rid of that old non-sexy Huey, where are our Blackhawks?". To which DOD replied " We've got you down for delivery in FY 2023 ( I kid you not)". The Gov's yelled and screamed and the retirement was put on hold till this year when enough Alpha model '60s became available ( as well as some units getting Chinooks and '58s).
But; still there is a shortage of airframes for the National Guard, due to the War. What to do? What to do?
Hey! Lets authorize bids for an off the shelf Medium lift Helicopter to take up the slack!
So; does anyone know who the front runner is?
IF you guessed Bell and the 210 you would be correct.
So; the current front runner to replace the Huey is.....the Huey!
Joe
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