Ray, please accept my sincere appologies for the name fluke. It wasn’t intentional. No hard feelings?
I do understand what You mean when You say You just pass over the M21 and Hog ships 
Looking forward to seeing Your new pics…
Best wishes,
Marko
Jon & Ray, Ron & Jay… same stuff. [;)]
Reminds me of something from many years ago, when the world was still young. And I was too!!!
You can call me Ray. You can call me Ray J. You can even call me R.J.!! But, you doesn’t have to call me Mr. Johnson!!!
Anyway, this IS a very interesting post.
Marko,
No worries about the name thing. I have certainly been called worse! I guess it’s about time to put up some pics since this is a modelling forum. Those M21 Hog pics are great. Here are a couple of a M16 Hog ship (quad 60’s and M200 rocket pods). This bird is from the 336th AHC. Note by the way that this is a B model. I think all of the M21 Hogs were more powerful C models. If the guns look a little strange, it’s because the barrels have been removed. I don’t suppose you have any other pics of this setup?
Ray
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Guys,
I found this on the 161st website:
What can I say, awesome flying or very good Photoshop work!
Ray
…or he’s been at the spinach and using the tins to fit onto the side of the M60’s!!
Rich
Nah… not impressed !
It was the Crew Chiefs job to ensure the pilot landed safely [:D]. He’s just taking things a little to far.
Probably just trying to avoid a huey (indoor plant) situation.
Lets see him try that with a Chinook!! [:D] Now that would be impressive.
(bloody show off) [:D].
Andy
Ray,
Good to see the M16/19-shooters combo too; I only have the M21/M200 photos that I already posted, but I am allways on the lookout for unusual/non-standard Huey configurations. So, if I find some more heavy M21 or M16 Huey photos I will certainly post them And as things are going here we might even come to see M21/M5 or M16/M5 armed Hueys
I got some new stuff for You guys though. The first set of images is of a UH-1B 63-08673 of the 117th Aviation Company (Air Mobile Light) from 1964/65. This bird was armed with the XM14 .50 cal gun pods. Each pod housed the M3 .50 cal MG with 750 rounds and a rate of fire of 1100-1250 rpm! Though the XM14 was a standardised piece of equipment it only saw limited use in Vietnam. In fact, I have only ever seen pictures of this particular UH-1B armed with XM14. I just love the early 117th tiger stripe camouflage! This Huey went under three different names: KARIN (painted on the nose), Cigar 6 (crossed cigars and 6 on both pilots doors) and Woody (don’t know how this name came about).
The nose art included a small figure of a soldier in tiger stripe fatigues peeing red tracer fire on both door posts and what was supposed to be a stylized ‘‘angry’’ Huey on both XM14 pods.
Note that this Huey had a mkVIII sight mounted on the co-pilots side too and didn’t have the armored seats yet, but early style armored panels.
The next image shows a UH-1B of the 68th Aviation Company (Armed Helicopter) (ex UTTHCO) at Soc Trang prior to a POW camp raid around Rach Gia in 1965. Note the door gunner is wearing a gas mask and the unusual XM3 system. This was a XM3 modified to dispense grenades; they could load 8 smoke, WP or CS grenades per tube. I remember reading about this grenade dispensing XM3 somewhere and it was initialy designed for laying smoke screens, but this is the only photo of it I’ve ever seen. Obviously the system is loaded with CS grenades in this photo. Does anybody have any additional info on this unusual system?
This is a Marine UH-1E TV29 of the HML-167 at Marble mountain in late 1970 armed with CBU-55 FAE cluster bombs. As far as I know only the Marines used this awesome weapon on helicopters operationaly (navy HA(L)-3 used a couple of UH-1L/HH-1K Hueys that had the capacity to carry CBU-55s, but for reasons unknown to me never used this weapons operationaly. They even installed specialized bomb sights in the chin bubbles, but…). CBU-55 was a 500-pound weapon containing three BLU-73 FAE submunitions and was used primarily against bunker and tunnel complexes. I believe there are a couple more images of CBU-55 armed UH-1Es on the ‘‘popasmoke’’ website.
I saw that You guys were discussing the mk115 mod 0 Helicopter Trap Weapon some time ago. Well, in case somebody decides to build a HTW armed UH-1E I dug a couple of drawings of the mk115 mod 0 with dimensions. mk115 was a modified mk63 60-pound 5-inch Zuni warhead. What they did is, they took the thin outer casing of the warhead, replaced the fragmentation cube liner with two layers of rectangular steel rods that were welded at alternate ends and attached the parachute and suspension lugs.
Marko
Marko,
Great pics, man! I alreay had the one of the 50 cal system, but the others are new.
“And as things are going here we might even come to see M21/M5 or M16/M5 armed Hueys :)”
Funny you should mention that:
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The first three are the XM50 system and are pics from the Army Aviation Museum archive. The lower one is a pic of a M16/M5 system (the original version of the Monogram Huey Hog) from tha Squadron Gunslingers In Action book by Lou drendel. All four of these birds are Charlie models. They were the only ones with a chance in you know where of getting off the ground with this armament configuration (except for a UH-1M). Notice the last bird is incorrectly identified as a Bravo model, but the 540 rotor head identifies it as a Charlie. Alao, Bravo sported the T53 L9 and Charlie model had T53 L11 engine. Mike model had a T53 L13. Currently the holy grail of armamant pics is a picture of either one of these setups in the field. I think all the pics above are of test birds, but i don’t have much data on them.
Ray
Ray
Just to clarify, the UH-1M was an upgrade of the UH-1C by the T53-L-13 engine, same as the upgrade of the D model to the H model. On C/M, the only real way to know is see the data plate, same as you have to do to an upgraded D
Grandad,
Yeah, I guess I should call all 540 rotor equipped Army birds UH-C/M, but since most were C’s i just usually call them Charlies. The photos of C/M birds without the particale filters are almost certainly C’s, however. I believe all the one’s I posted are C’s. The last two have nose mounted FM antannae as well (meaning they’re too early to be a M).
Ray
Ray,
Great stuff! I’ve been looking for XM50 armed UH-1Cs for quite some time-not much luck except the one or two photos in the Squadron UH-1 Huey Gunships Walkaround. Did You by any chance find some photos of the interior of XM50 Hueys? I would really like to see the arrangement of ammo boxes, since both M21 and M5 ammo boxes took up the same space in the cabin. Man, I really envy You US guys for having access to such great collections and museums like the ft. Rucker Army Aviation Museum. From Your photos of the XM50 it seems that both systems (M21 and M5) were integrated and aimed using a common sighting station similar to the M21 sighting station (it can be seen stowed in the last XM50 image You posted).
I think we might at least have a chance of seeing M5/M16 combo on Vietnam Hueys. And I’ve got two reasons for believing that this combo was at least tested in Vietnam:
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I have a 1972 UH-1B maintenance manual, and there is a note under the armament subsystems section saying that M5 could be used in conjunction with the M16-this is further referenced to M16 armament subsystem manual. So if anybody following this forum happens to have a M16 armament subsystem manual, I would really appreciate if they could check it up and possibly provide some additional info on M5/M16 combo.
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I stumbled upon this image of Lou Drendel’s painting of what was suppose to be a UH-1B of C troop 1st Squadron 9th Cavalry at Phu Cat in 1966. Since Lou Drendel’s artwork is usually historically accurate, we may assume that he painted this UH-1B according to some photographic reference… Huey buffs will immediately notice the short rotor mast associated with UH-1A (mistake on Lou’s part, I guess :).
I know that several images of INFANT UH-1Ms were allready posted here, but we mostly get to see test birds and INFANT NETT birds. So I am posting a couple of images of a 191st AHC UH-1M INFANT. It is quite frustrating that there are so few images of INFANT Hueys from Vietnam.
Marko
Ok, here’s a couple of pics for you guys. We all know what the M5 looked like in Vietnam, but have you ever seen the early experimental model (the XM-5):
Now you have! Note by the way that this pic is of an Alpha model. I was very excited to say the least when I ran across these pics in tha Army Aviation Museum archives!
Here’s another pic that I have NO IDEA what the system being tested is. Please help me out somebody. There was no info with the photo:
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This system is on a UH-1H, but that’s about all I know.
Ray
Ray,
I haven’t got a clue what the system on the UH-1H is!?! In fact, I wouldn’t even dare to guess! And what’s with that screen fitted to the co-pilot’s door? Strange looking rig indeed. That early XM5 system really looked crude
I found a couple of images of XM3 armed UH-1B 64-14054 of C/2/20 ARA at LZ Lane in 1967/68. Note the CS grenade dispenser mounted in the cabin; I think it is the modified XM3 I mentioned in one of the previous posts, just that C/2/20 ARA had it mounted in the cabin. I have never seen this configuration before.
Marko
Marko,
Great pics as usual. Ever seen an ALE 29 countermeasures dispenser mounted on an Army Huey?
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I’m sure this was just a test bird, but you can see the unit is mounted on an M156 universal mount. I thought this might mesh with your flare dispenser theme.
Ray
Here’s a very unusual Huey that i also posted in the Unusual Cammo thread. It is a UH-1B that has a nice tiger stripe cammo and presumably a quad M-200 rocket pod armamant system! I call this the Super Hog!
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It looks to be a 1t Cav bird (sorry UTTHCO, thanks Marko), but I really have no data on it. I woudl be happy for any info anyone could provide.
Here’s a system I have no clue what to make of. I was wondering if it is a smoke generator of some sort. as far as I knew extra fuel tanks were carried in the passenger cabin, right? But then again what would a rescue bird need with a smoke generator? By the way, the little label on the canister says Bell Helicopter, so it must have been manufactured for them.
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Next is a experimental FLIR system I guess? Jon, please correct me if I’m wrong.
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Finally, I hesitate to even post this one, but does anyone know EXACTLY what type of missile this is? After the fiasco last time, I ain’t even gonna guess!
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I really thought I knew a lot about Hueys but this post has me feeling kinda like this:
Ray
Ray,
Fantastic stuff! I guess that so many unusual systems were tested on Hueys, that maybe even the Army lost track of them all As for that quad 19-shooter UH-1B, it was a UTTHCO (Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company) bird, not the 1st Cav. The UTTHCO was tasked with testing new weapons and developing gunship tactics. They would camouflage their UH-1Bs in three tone tiger stripe pattern in the early 60s and apply crossed sabres on most of their Hueys. The unit went through a lot of name changes: from UTTHCO to 68th Aviation Company (Armed helicopter), then 197th Aviation Company (Armed Helicopter) and finally 334th AWC. I think I got some more pictures of UTTHCO birds and info on the unit, just give me some time to dig it up The same quad mount was also used to test other ordnance such as XM14 .50 cal gun pods, napalm canisters, GP and frag bombs, smoke generators… Also, the 19-shooters in picture aren’t Army M200 but USAF LAU-3.
I believe that roof mounted sighting system is more likely to be some experimental optical sight for some missile system (like for TOW) rather than FLIR. I could be wrong though
Marko
Marko,
How do you know the rocket pods are LAU-3’s? ACTIV (Army Concept Team In Vietnam) also tested lots of new weapons systems as well. What are your sources for your info? I’m always looking for new refs!
Ray
EDIT: I found a report by ACTIV on the Virtual Vietnam Archive from 1964. UTTHCO was one of the testbed units for armed Huey concepts examined in ths report. the other two were the 118th and 120th Airmobile Companies (light). UTTHCO had 20 armed UH-1B’s and the 118th and 120th had 8 each. Anyway, the units tested both the LAU-3A 19 shot pods and the LAU-32A seven shot pods as well as the M-6 quad M60C system. There is no ref to quad LAU-3A’s, but pics don’t lie!
They probably are LAU-3’s as the M-200 didn’t yet exist when that photo was taken. That cammo paint scheme predates the introduction of the M-200. The scheme wasn’t just used by UTTHCO but also was seen on 114th and 117th unit helicopters. The crossed sabers have appeared on photos linked to UTTHCO but as of yet I have not found them elsewhere.
Chief Snake
Chief,
Yeah, I kinda figured that out later (see my edit above). Exactly when were the M200 pods introduced and where can I go for that documentation?
Thanks,
Ray