I’ve decided to start my own topic in Air America Helicopters and Aircraft that operated in Vietnam and Laos , rather than hijacking someone else’s post .
In the pic below , there is an UH-1B Air America Huey , with some type of dome under the fuselage . I was wondering if anyone knew what this used for .
I also have been going through my kit stash to organize a collection of covert/Air America helo’s and aircraft .
I have a Caribou and a AU-23 peacemaker [Pilatus Porter] on order and a book from amazon.com ‘Wings of Air America’ . It may be quite a few weeks before the book arrives in the mail , so for the time being I thought I would start doing a little research
I may have already got myself a little confused ; I’m not sure if helicopters and aircraft that operated covertly in vietnam and Laos were crewed by Air America pilots or U.S military personal ??? , were they two seperate organizations or jointly run operations .
It will be a couple of months before I start any builds , I just thought I would get as much information I could find together first . But I’m excited about this possible project and it’s given me the motivation to finish off a whole bunch of Huey builds I currently have going .
I appreciate any assistance anyone can give me regarding my future project or at least point me in the right direction .
I’m not very familiar with Air America, I’m actually waiting to see what you think of the book you posted the other night.
Looking through the H-34 book I mentioned, Air America operated more than 100 H-34s. Depending on how complete a collection you want you could use that Italeri UH-34J with Cobra Companies S-58T conversion to make XW-PHA, one of several turbine conversions they operated (and the only one with a photo in the book).
The majority listed are UH-34Ds from the USMC which has the bent leg style landing gear. If you can’t track down an Italeri UH-34D, the Hobby Boss kit has the right style. Not as nice as the Italeri kit but not bad.
If you don’t plan on multiple versions of AA H-34s, the UH-34J you have would work for one of the ex-USN Seabats they had.
Thank’s for the additional info , I’m more than happy to build multiple versions of helicopters used by Air America ; I do have another Hobby Boss UH-34D in my stash and I’ll send away to Cobra Co. for that S-58T nose conversion .
Actually the only pic I found so far on the net was a UH-34J at this site,
Air America pilots in SEA were civilians contracted by Air American which was a front for the CIA, no active duty military pilots were used although some were recruited from the ranks and “scrubbed” and I am sure many were ex-military also used. There was no direct connection between the two, although in Loas, Air America would help in SAR missions for downed American military pilots if they were in the area.
Some “black ops” missions were flown into Loas and Cambodia by the military for military reasons such as intel under the direction of SOG
Just as a note, Air America did not fly UH-1B’s but instead 204B’s. The main differences being the tailboom and rotor system. The 204B had the lengthened tail boom like the UH-1F and uses the 48ft diameter 205 rotor system unlike the 44 ft 204 system used on the UH-1B. All you need to build one is a Italeri UH-1F with the cowling from the UH-1B kit. Viola, a 204B. However, the italeri rotors are woefully short and I’d either use the rotor from an esci UH-1D or legthen the provided rotors by 8 scale feet. Also, I see twin nose pitots. So far as I am aware, that means that Air America bird had an autopilot. At least that’s what two pitots are used for in the UH-1N. Good luck with your build.
I’m very greatful for you pointing me in the right direction on the 204B Huey .
I didn’t realize it was a UH-1F airframe , so your advice is most welcome.
I do have a spare 1B [Bravo] engine cowling and I recently picked up four revell UH-1D Huey’s to use the main rotors on some UH-1F builds and I needed a set of cabin doors to replace a pair of Fireball resin Flat Iron Huey doors that I damaged when cutting them from the pour block [banghead] .
I guess I’m taking a leaf out of your book and researching the topic and aircraft first , to make sure I don’t start building wrong versions of helicopters .
Thank’s again for the help and advice … very much appreciated [tup]
I just finished reading some stuff about the war in Laos involving aircraft of both the US Military and Air America. The answer to your question about pilots and air crew is they were flown by both CIA and military personnel . Operations we conducted both seperately and jointly between military and CIA air assets. After reading what I did, it was not the best way (i.e. working together agaist a common foe toward a common goal) There were operations supporting Royal Laotion government forces against the Pathet Lao, and operations against NVA forces that were along the Ho Chi Minh trail enroute to South Vietnam. Almost all were covert, and the ones involving the Pathet Lao had many political hoops to jump thru regarding approval by DOD and State Department both in Laos and Washington DC.
I’ve often wondered if military battles and wars could have better results if there was less politic’s / politician’s involved to screw things up .
Anyway I have just started reading my book and learning about the unique language used…
i.e. CIA , known as "the customer’’ , ammunition called “hard rice” , personal droped in enemy territory [indian country] were called “infils” and “exfils” when they were brought out .
I came across a couple of Bell 204B Huey’s
I also like the blue and white scheme , so I’ll be building one of each .
not to take money away from anyone…but to save you any conversion hassels-- if there’s a model show in your area look for the Matchbox Westland Wessex, model PK-133(H-34 in 1/72). This kit gives you the option of the radial or turbine engine nose.
That kit offers two versions of the turbine powered Wessex, not a radial powered H-34. Being a turbine powered S-58, the Wessex is similar to the S-58T but has a very different nose.
The S-58T’s nose somewhat resembles a pig snout while the Wessex either has a pointy bird beak looking nose or a blunter nose with a large intake on top.
John here is a UH-34D with the bent leg landing gear
and if you don’t have one, a photo of a blue & silver S-58T
Sorry they are rather blurry, its not easy taking a photo of a book. If you need a better copy I can probably scan them. The markings are very basic, just H-22 on the UH-34D and on the S-58T Air America on the tail and XW-PHA on the nose.
The post Vietnam system of regional CINCs controlling all assets in their theater of operations, I believe is a direct result of the fiascoes of the South East Asia wars. All forces are integrated under a single game plan, not each service doing what they think is best or will get them the most PR. The senior officers in the 91 Gulf War were the junior officers of SEA. They were on the short end of the stick and rebuilt accordingly.
The book I just finished is “Rain of Fire”, and is pretty much encompasses all the air war in SEA post Rolling Thunder. Laos took on additional significance after Rolling Thunder as all the air assets no longer could go into NVN and it was a case of use 'em or lose 'em. Between that book and several others in the series, a better picture of the war in Laos has emerged for me.
I do like the color scheme of the S-58T in the second pic , all the photo’s in my book have the H-34D’s and the S-58T’s in the standard Marine Green color scheme . So I’ll use the HobbyBoss H-34D and have the overall green finish and the Italeri H-34J will have the “CC” resin nose and blue and silver finish .
I also found on the net a web site for Air America Decals ;
www.decals@mikegrantdesign.com , There listed under the 1/48 scale but are suitable for all different types of aircraft as they are in different sizes on the single sheet .
So everything is progressing along nicely , I also found out that the British Chinook HC-1 is the CH-47C version , I might think about getting that one and saving my Revell CH-47D to use with my RAAF decals I have in my stash . I’ll keep looking for a DHC-6 Twin Otter .
Years ago I did build one of those Matchbox Wessex helicopters but sadly she is long gone now to model heaven . I did save the nose section and found it in the spares box .
However as Aaronw mentioned earlier there is a big difference between what Matchbox offered and Cobra Company’s resin nose .
I did find the box art from my original Westland Wessex amoungst my files , I now remember the kit was boxed as an HU-5 for the Royal Navy or the HAS-31 for the Royal Australian Navy .
So it would be easy to mix up the HU-5 nose and the S-58T nose section .
This aircraft made an emergency landing because he lost an engine. We had to post a guard with orders to shoot anyone trying to get aboard who wan’t a member of the crew. It took some time but they eventually found a replacement engine.
During the time I served in Viet Nam (1967-68) my US Army Aviation unit provided CH-47A aircraft and flight crews “TDY” to Air America in Laos. You don’t need to worry about decals for these aircraft - we removed or covered every piece of external identification before they left Viet Nam.
The missions to Laos lasted anywhere from a few days to several weeks. Air America had limited “heavy lift” helicopter capabilities during that time, so we got the call to go and help out.
Thank’s for those great pic’s of the C-46 Commando .
There are two small B&W pic’s in the Air America book of the C-46 aircraft ‘XW-PHM’ 30252 with that some color scheme , it say’s it was the standard Continental Airlines markings of that time ; but I’m not sure what the actual colors are ???
