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US Army Aircraft Since 1947 PDF

147 Pages·1990·105.94 MB·English
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STEPHEN HARDING SINCE1947 - SINCE 1947 An Illustrated Directory by STEPHEN HARDING speOialbYrn[Pl~~~ Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This bookis dedicatedto INTRODUCTION Mary, Sarah andIan AUTHOR'S NOTE AIRCRAFTPROFILES,ALPHABETICALLY LISTED AeroDesignandEngineeringU-9AeroCommander 1 AeroncaL-16 3 AmericanHelicopterH-26 5 AvroCanadaVZ-9 7 BeechC-45Expediter 9 BeechU-8Seminole 12 BeechT-42Cochise 17 BeechU-21 Ute 19 BeechC-12Huron 24 BeechT-34Mentor 27 BellH-13Sioux 29 Copyright©1990byStephenHarding BellV-3 33 BellH-15 35 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisworkmaybereproducedorusedinany BellH-4 37 form byanymeans- graphic,electronic,ormechanical,including BellH-l Iroquois 39 photocopying,recording,taping,oranyinformationstorageandretrieval BellSK-5 45 system- withoutwrittenpermissionofthepublisher. BellAH-l Cobra 47 BellH-58Kiowa 53 PrintedinEnglandbyLiveseyLtd. BellH-63 57 9091 92939454321 Be11V-15 59 BellD292ACAP 61 ISBN0-933424-53-1 BoeingL-15Scout 63 Boeing-VertolH-47Chinook 65 FirstpublishedintheUnitedKingdomin1990by BrantlyHO-3 73 AirlifePublishingLtd. Boeing-VertolH-61 71 CessnaU-20 75 PublishedintheUnitedStatesin1990by Cessna0-1 BirdDog 77 SpecialtyPress,Inc. CessnaT-37 81 P.O. Box338 CessnaH-41 Seneca 83 123NorthSecondStreet CessnaU-3 85 Stillwater,MN55082U.S.A. CessnaT-41 Mescalero 87 InMinn612-430-2210 ChryslerVZ-6 89 Toll-free800-888-9653 Consolidated-VulteeL-13 91 Curtiss-WrightVZ-7 93 BooktradedistributionbyVoyageurPress,Inc. Curtiss-WrightModel2500 95 DeHavillandU-6Beaver 97 SpecialtyPressbooksarealsoavailableatdiscountsforquantitiesfor DeHavillandU-l Otter 99 educational,fundraising,premium,orsales-promotionuse.Fordetails DeHavillandC-7Caribou 101 contactthemarketingmanager.Pleasewriteorcallforourfreecatalogof DeHavillandV-7Buffalo 104 publications. DeHavillandV-18 106 r I I SikorskyH-3SeaKing 240 DeLacknerHZ-1 108 SikorskyH-54Tarhe 242 DoakVZ-4 110 SikorskyH-59 245 DomanH-31 112 SikorskyH-60Blackhawk 247 DouglasC-47Skytrain 114 SikorskyS-72RSRA 252 DouglasC-54Skymaster 117 SikorskyS-75ACAP 254 DouglasA4DSkyhawk 118 StinsonL-5Sentinel 256 FairchildVZ-5 120 Sud-OuestHO-1 259 FiatG.91 122 VertolH-21 Shawnee 261 FokkerF-27 124 VertolH-16Transporter 263 GrummanV-1 Mohawk 126 VertolVZ-2 265 GrummanGulfstreamIandII 131 VertolHC-1 267 GulfstreamC-20 134 HawkerSiddeleyV-6Kestrel 136 HelioU-10Courier 139 APPENDIX: ARMYAIRCRAFT DESIGNATION HillerH-23Raven 141 SYSTEMS 269 HillerVZ-1 Pawnee 144 HillerH-32Hornet 146 HillerH-5 148 BIBLIOGRAPHY 272 HughesV-9 150 HughesH-55Osage 152 HughesH-6Cayuse 154 KamanH-2TomahawkandSeasprite 158 LockheedH-51 161 LockheedC-121 163 LockheedV-4Hummingbird 165 Lockheed0-3 167 LockheedP-2Neptune 171 LockheedH-56Cheyenne 174 McCullochH-30 177 McDonnellV-1 179 McDonnell-DouglasH-64Apache 181 MississippiStateUniversity/ParsonsV-11 184 NoorduynC-64Norseman 186 NorthropN-156F 188 NorthAmerican/RyanU-18Navion 190 NorthAmericanT-28Trojan 192 NorthAmerican/CavalierF-51 Mustang 194 PiaseckiH-25ArmyMule 197 PiaseckiVZ-8 199 Piasecki16H-1A 202 PilatusV-20Chiricahua 204 PiperL-4 206 PiperL-18 209 PiperU-7 211 PrincetonUniversityGem 213 RyanVZ-3 215 RyanV-8 218 RyanV-5 220 SeibelH-24 223 ShortsSD3-30 225 SikorskyH-18 227 SikorskyH-19Chickasaw 229 SikorskyH-39 232 SikorskyH-34Choctaw 234 SikorskyH-37Mojave 237 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION The author wishes to thank all the people and organizations In the just over forty years since its creation the air arm of the listed below for supplying the information, photos, and other modern United States Army has grown from a relatively small data without which this book would have been far less and ill-equipped liaison and battlefield observation force into a complete: vast, complex and capable organization employing more than Peter M. Bowers; Jim Sullivan; Duane Kasulka; William T. 10,000 fixed- and rotary-wing attack, reconnaissance, transport Larkins; Bob Pickett; Peter Russell-Smith; Roger Besecker; and general utility aircraft. In the course of this transformation Gordon S. Williams; Georg Fischbach; Peter Mancus; Sharon Army aviation has been called upon to perform a wide range of Shaw of De Havilland Canada; British Aerospace; Jennifer tasks both at home and around the world, and has participated Norton of Fairchild Industries; Florence Piazza of Piasecki in two major armed conflicts and a host of what are popularly Aircraft; Lynn Coakly of Army Aviation magazine; H. Dean known as 'international crises'. These factors, coupled with Humphrey of Cessna Aircraft; Marilyn Phipps of Boeing; C. E. long-standing governmental restraints placed on the size, Ruckdaschel of Rockwell International; Holly Moore of the complexity and capabilities of its aircraft, have made the Army American HelicopterSociety; MessrsW. Odermattand U. Wenger both innovative and inventive in its approach to military of Pilatus Aircraft; Bruce Goulding of Kaman Aerospace; Ira aviation. As a result, over the past four decades the United Chart and E. C. Riley of Northrop Corporation; Lois Lovisolo of States Army has acquired and employed a greater variety of Grumman Corporation; Jack Isabel and Z. Joe Thornton of aircraft types - experimental and operational, mass-purchase General Dynamics; John Gedraitis of Beechcraft; Don Hanson and 'one-of-a-kind', fixed-wing, rotary-wing and, in afew cases, and Harry Gann of Douglas Aircraft; Bell Helicopter-Textron; no-winged - than could be found in many larger airforces. Boeing-Vertol; Hynes Helicopters; Eric Schulzingerof Lockheed This book is not intended to be a comprehensive history of California; Joseph E. Dabneyof Lockheed-Georgia; Dana Mullady post-World War II Army aviation activities; that fascinating and of Sikorsky Aircraft; Fokker Aircraft BV; C. Samuel Campagna complex story is deserving of a far more detailed study than of Short Brothers; McDonnell-Douglas Helicopter Company; could be presented in these pages and has, in fact, been well Mississippi State University; Princeton University; George told elsewhere*. Still, any directory ofthe manned aircraft used Welsh of the San Diego Aerospace Museum; Cesare Falessi of by the modern United States Army must include at least a brief Aeritalia; Frank Colucci of Defence Helicopter World magazine; summary of the events and trends that shaped Army aviation, Ruth Shephard and Ralph Pritchard ofthe Army Transportation for the type and number of machines operated by the Army Corps Museum; Thomas J. Sabiston of the Army Aviation from 1947 onward - their development, use and eventual Museum; MajorAustin R. Omlie ofthe Army Aviation Engineer supplantation by other, more advanced types - was and is ing Flight Activity; Joseph Avesian oftheArmy Tank-Automotive determined by those events and trends. Command; Jack Calve, W. Howard DeMere, LTC Thomas Though United StatesArmy aviation can trace its lineage back Fichter, and LTC Don R. Watson of the Army Aviation Systems tothe Federal balloon companies ofthe American Civil War, and Command; Betty Goodson of the Army Aviation Center; and though many of its traditions and not afew of its current tactics Wayne Dzwonchyk and Dr Robert Wright of the U.S. Army were originally developed by organic aviation units flying small Center of Military History. 'grasshopper' aircraft in support ofArmy operations immediately prior to and during World War II, the air arm of the modern United States Army can more accurately be said to have originated with the U.S. Congress' 1947 passage ofthe National Security Act. Among its other sweeping reforms ofthe American military establishment, this legislation transformed the World War II-era Army Air Forces into the United States Air Force, a separate military service effectively responsible forthe operation ofall non-naval U.S. combat aircraft. Underthe terms ofthe Act, the Air Force was made responsible for, among other things, fUlfilling all of the Army's close combat, logistical air support, aerial photography and tactical reconnaissance requirements. The Army, for its part, was allowed to maintain a small force of - aircraft for liaison and battlefield transportation purposes, such as the de Havilland of C.anada L-20 Beaver, ~s .well.as though a joint 1949 Army-USAF agreement specified that t~e clearing the way for ~he establls~mentof the Army s first five Army's fixed-wing machines could not exceed 2500 pounds In helicoptertransportation companl~s. , weight, nor its helicopters 4000 pounds.. The war in Korea was a proving ground for the. Army s Within afew years of its creation the Air Force became de~p~y embryonic air arm. Throughout the.c0L!rse of the.c.onfllct. ~rmy involved in the development of the strategic bombers, balll~tlc fixed-wing aircraft did yeoman service In the traditional liaison, missiles and supersonic fighters needed to meet the growing observation and VIP transport roles, and performed equ~lIy as threat presented by the increasingly agwessive forces of th.e well at such new tasks as forward air control o! att~ck alrc!"aft, Soviet Union and her allies. Though obviously necessary, this electronic warfare and, on more tha~ o~e OCCaSI?~,Improvised concentration on 'high-tech' aircraft and aviation programmes tactical air support. The Army's belief In the military valu~ of nonetheless ensured that the Army co-operation mission did helicopterswas quicklyvindicated in Kore~,forcombatoperations not receivethe level of prioritythe Army felt it deserved. Indeed, with the Bell H-13, Sikorsky H-19. and Hille~ H-23 soon pro:red the Air Force's perceived inabilityto adequatelyfulfill the Army's that rotary-wing aircraft were Ideally sUlte~ for. battlefl~ld aviation needs, coupled with the USAF's continuin~ resistance surveillance, casualty evacuation and t~e rapid POIt}t-to~polnt to the Army's creation of an air arm that would In any w~y movement of men, equipment and supplies upon which victory impinge on whatthe Air Force considered to be its ovyn domain, in modern warfare increasingly depended. . forced the Army to begin a careful and often ~!r~ums'pe~t During the latter stages of the Korean W~r, and In the years expansion of its own aviation resources and capabilities '0'lthln immediately following the end of that conflict, th~ Army began and in some cases, beyond the limits set by the applicable inte~service s~ch to put into practice many ofthe valuabl~les.so.ns It had learned agreements. This expansion, which inclu.ded aboutthe organization and use of?rg~nlcaVlatl~na~sets.These things as a push for the development of an. organic tactical years sawthe organization and actlvatlo.n ofthe first I~dependent cargo transport capability and the formula~lon of new ~nd aviation units, the Army's first operational ev~luatlon of such innovative doctrine for the combat use of helicopters, was Just fixed-wing jet aircraft as the Cessna T-37 and Flat G-91~ and.the beginning to flourish when the Korea~War bro.ke out. formulation of a new tactical doctrine that for the first time At the time hostilities commenced In Korea In June of 1950, promised to makefull use ofthe immense potent!al value ofthe the Army had some 660 fixed-wing and fifty-seven rotarY-'0'ing military helicopter. In a~dition~ t.he ~ecade f~llowlng the Korean aircraft in its inventory, though many of the former were either War witnessed increaSing offiCial Inter~st In the dev~l.opment obsolete types dating to World War II or essentially. stock and deployment of new aircraft types Intended specifically to commercial designs unsuited for combat use, and most of the meet the Army's particular aviation needs. Indeed,.by 1960 t.he latterwere small training machines. Moreover, an acuteshortage Army inventory included some 5,000 aircraft of fifteen major of pilots and ground crews further complicated initial at~empts types. Though many of these new designs we!"e one of a kind to field the operational aircraftso desperately needed dUring the flight test support aircraft, surface-effect machln~s, compound early days of the war. Army aviation ~nswe~ed the challenge rotorcraft individual lift devices and other exotic (not to say despitethese difficulties, however, and In thefirst mon.t~~oft~e eccentric)'experimental vehicles meantto explore emerging new conflict pilots and ground crew hastily recalled from civilian life technologies, during the late 1950s and early 196~s the ~rmy kept the vintage L-4s and L-5s in the air and working in support was also developing and introducing other, more Immediately ofthe United Nations forces. useful types. The Vertol CH-21 Shawnee, de Havilland ofCanada As the months passed the initial period of make-do improvis U-6 Beaver and U-1 Otter, Sikorsky CH-34 Chc:ctaw, Bell UH-1 ation gave way to an increasingly rapid expan~ionofthe A.rmy's Iroquois, Grumman OV-1 Mohawk and Boelng-Vertol CH-47 aviation arm as more funds became available for aircraft Chinookall entered the Army inventory between 1954and 1962. acquisition. As an example, in the fiscal years (FY) 1949 and It was these aircraft, and the tactics developed around the~, 1950 the Army had procured only 481 aircraft; in FY 1952. the which were to form the basis ofthe Army's initial operations In number of machines ordered jumped to more than 3600, with a the Vietnam War. . further 700 machines ordered in FY 1953. Among the first new If Korea was a proving ground for the infant Army air arm, types procured was the immensely capable Ce.ssna L-1~ (3ird Vietnam was a fiery crucible in which the force was tempered Dog, which began replacing the older observation a~d liaison and from which it ultimately emerged far stronger a.nd vast!y machines in combat units in the spring of 1951. The Air Force's more capable. The first Army aircraft ~eployed to. Vletn~m In October 1951 lifting of the Army aircraft weight restrictions appreciable numbers - fourtransportation companies equipped further enhancedthe Army's aviation capabilities byallowingthe with Vertol CH-21 Shawnee helicopters - arrived in South procurement of larger and more capable fixed-wing machines Vietnam in late 1961 and early 1962. Though initially tasked - ---------------------- medium transports ultimately ledto thetransferofthose craftto solely '0"ith supporting South Vietnamese forces, Army aircraft t~e US~F,the Arr:ny continued to operate such other important and aViators soon broadened the range of their activities to fixed-Wing machines as the venerable 0-1 (L-19) Bird Dog, match th~ United States' growing involvement in all aspects of Beech U-21 Ute, Grumman OV-1 Mohawk, and even electronic ~he conflict. A~d as the level of American participation steadily warfare variants of the Lockheed P-2 Neptune naval patrol !ncreased so did the number and type ofArmy aircraft deployed bomber. I~ the c?mbat areas. In January 1963 there were 222 Army Vietnam was indeed atesting ground for Army aviation and alrc~aft. In-country, 149 of which were helicopters; by the ~ombat eXPE':rience ther.e led directly to the development and b~glnnlngof October 1964 the Army had 406 aircraft in South Implementation of a Wide range of systems that have since Vietnam, including 259 helicopters. becom~ standard for milit~ry rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft. This early period of American involvement in Vietnam also These Include advanced aircraft protection devices such as saw the first operational application of a new and innovative radarwarning receive~s,electronic cou.ntermeasures equipment, avi.ation doctrine known as 'airmobility', a concept that would and cha~f an~ flare dispensers, a variety of target acquisition ultimatelychan~ebot~thefundamental nature ofArmy aviation and deSignation systems, advanced airborne reconnaissance and the '0"ay .In which the Army developed, acquired and gea~, and a dizzying array of extremely effective weapons. And deployed Its aircraft. The airmobility concept had been under tactics developed and perfected in Vietnam have also been development since the late 1950s, and in 1963 the 11th Air passed into the po~t-Vietnam.a~e: nap-of-the-earth flight to Assault Division was established specifically to test the doctrine defeat enemy detection and anti-aircraft systems, the destruction and tactics codified the previous year by the Army Tactical of enemy a~moured,:,ehicle~by hun~er-killerteams made up of Mobility Requ.irements Board. Based on the use of large an observ:atl.on machine equlppe~with a lasertarget designator numbers of lightly armed transport helicopters to quickly and. a mls~i1e-armed attack h~llcop.ter, the use of specially transport troops and supplies into and out of the combat area fro~ eqUipped flxed- and rotary-wing aircraft to support special airmobility drew its inspiration and many of its tactics operations forces, and the use of highly sophisticated manned su~cessfulFrenc.h mi.litary experiences with helicopters in Indo and unmanned aircraft for intelligence collection over the C.hlna and AIQerla. Simply put, airmobility envisaged the use of moder.n battlefield. And all of these various developments in aircraft organicto Army unitsto eliminatethetraditional reliance both aircraft hardware and aviation tactics have been validated on sl.ow and vulnerable ground transport and at the same time in act!on,w~etherduring routine peacetime operations in Europe provl~egr?und.commandersatheretofore undreamed ofability or ASia, dUring the deployment of Army aircraft and aviators to to rapidlyfind, fiX, e':lgage and, ifnecessary, disengagefrQm the such areas oftension as Central America, or in actual combat in ene~y.The use ofhigh-performance attack helicoptersto escort Grenada and, more recently, the Persian Gulf and Panama. t~e Ilg~t!y-armedtransport aircraft was an integral part of the In the years since the end of the Vietnam War the United alrmobillty concept, and the Army's adoption of the doctrine States Army has continued to be a leader in the development of thus ultimately led directly to the development of the first adv~ncedpurpose-bui!taircraft. These includetypes currently in purpose-built helicopter gunship, the Bell AH-1 Cobra. serVice, such as the Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk family of utility As first practised in Vietnam, airmobility relied primarily on the transport and special operations support aircraft, the McDonnell CH-21, though by 1964 the ageing and overburdened Shawnee Douglas AH-64 Ap~che attack helicopter, high-technology test had been almost entirely replaced bythe newerand vastly more beds such as the Sikorsky Rotor Systems Research Aircraft and capable B~1l UH-1 Iroquois. The Huey, as the latter craft was machin~s such still-evolving as the Bell-Boeing V-22 Ospreytilt alrT"!0st universally kn~wn, quickly became the dominant Army rotor. The Army also continues to adapt selected civil aircraft helicopter type In Vietnam and did yeoman duty as troop such asthe F~kkerF.27.an~ Shorts SD3-30for military use,while and VIP transport, armed escort, medical evacuation aircraft speci~1 at the same time continuing the upgrading and modernization electronic warfare and operations support platform, and of such existing types as the CH-47 Chinook AH-1 Cobra and command and control machine. Other newtypes which followed OH-58 Kiowa. ' the UH-1. into servic~ in Vietnam included the Hughes OH-6 The tran~forma.tion of United States Army aviation from a Cayuse light obser~atlonhelicopter in 1965, the first examples smal.1 an~ III-eqUipped post-World War II liaison force into a of the above-':l'lentl~nedAH-1 Cobra gunship in 1967, and the credlbl.e Independ~nt air arm c~pable of supporting Army Bel.1 OH-58 KIOwa In 1969. Though Vietnam was primarily a op~ratlonsworldWide was noteasily accomplished, nor have its ~ellcopterwarforthe Army, several fixed-wing types carried out gains,been easily f!1aintained. Early U.S. Air Force envy of the Importa':lt tasks as well, especially in the tactical transport and electronic warfare roles. Though continued Air Force resistance Army s lea~~rshlp In the development of military vertical flight and OPPOSition to the Army's attempts to develop its own to Army ownership of de Havilland Caribou twin-engined AUTHOR'S NOTE tactical aViation assets, though muted with time, have not entirely disappeared and interservice rivalry continues to cause unnecessary friction. Recurring budgetary restrictions, the increasingly fantastic sums of money needed to acquire, field and maintain modern combat aircraft, the ebb and flow of In order to provide the most complete coverage possible of the changing national priorities and, above all, the absolute necessity topic, I have included in this volume all manned aircraft types to remain constantly prepared for action anywhere in an ever known to have been used operationally by, or evaluated but not more unsettled world, have all played a part in making Army ultimately adopted for use by, the Regular Army, the Army aviation the force it is today. Yet, fortunately, it is aforce which, Reserve and the Army National Guard. I have also included despite the limitations placed upon it, continues to be the most several air cushion vehicles and ground effect machines which, capable of its kind in the free world. at first glance, might not seem to qualify as true aircraft. However, these vehicles were considered aircraft by the Army and were, with only a few exceptions, assigned aircraft desig nations and serial numbers. In the interests of clarity I have listed the aircraft in both alphabetical and chronological order. This is, the aircraft are * See bibliographyforalistofseveral goodgeneral histories. listed alphabetically by manufacturer's name and, when several aircraftfrom the same manufacturerare included,theyare listed within the manufacturer's grouping inthechronological orderin which theywere first obtained bytheArmy. The readerwill note that although in some cases this method of listing will cause several aircraftfrom the same manufacturerto beseeminglyout of order- for example, the Sikorsky H-39, which the Army first acquired in 1954, is listed before the Sikorsky H-34 and H-37, which were acquired in, respectively, 1955and 1956- it allows a more accurate indication of when each aircraft type was actually acquired. In compiling the alphabetical listing I have chosen to use the manufacturer's name that was in use during the majorityofthetime each aircraftwas inthe Army's inventory, rather than using either the original or the most recent version of a given manufacturer's corporate identity. I have thus, for example, listed several aircraft designed and originally built by Piasecki Aircraft under the Vertol Aircraft heading, for the aircraft in question were acquired and used by the Army after Vertol bought out the original Piasecki concern. I have likewise listed the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter under McDonnell Doug.las HelicopterCompany,thefirm that iscurrentlyproducing the aircraft for the Army, rather than under Hughes Helicopters, the firm that originally developed the machine. In still another attempt to impose greater clarity on an often confusing topic, Ihave listed each aircraft underthe most recent basic type designation it held or, in the case of current ~achines,holds at the time this volume is going to press. This I~ a necessity because many of the aircraft used by the Army Since 1947 have carried avariety of designations, depending on the period in which they were introduced, the use to which a particularvariantofthe basic machinewas being put, and so on. Thus, for example, the de Havilland of Canada Caribou is listed underthe C-7 designation assigned to the type in January 1967, and which the few examples still in Army service in 1990 still carry, rather than the CV-2 designation the Caribou carried for ever having been officially transferred to the Army. As any the initial part of its Army service. Similarly, helicopters are aircraft buffcan attest, trying to track down accurate information designated by the basic prefix H in the top line of each entry, on such borrowed airplanes can be extremely difficult, and rather than as 'CH' for cargo helicopter, 'TH' for training trying to locate suitable photographs of said airplanes in Army machine, and so on. Then in the body of the text for each markings can be virtually impossible. The same sort of problem machine I have covered the designations assigned to the is encountered when one seeks information regarding the variants of each individual type. In the same vein, in the top line approximately twenty-seven aircraft the Army has acquired of each entry I have listed only those aircraft nicknames that through the U.S. Government's Confiscated/Excess Aircraft were officially recognized by the Army. The Bell UH-1 is Programme (C/EAP). These machines (which are known to therefore referred to in the heading line bythe official nickname include at least one Gates Learjet, a Short 330, a Brittan 'Iroquois', rather than by the admittedly more widely used Norman Islander, and a variety of light piston models) were 'Huey'. transferred to the Army after being seized by the Federal In the technical data section for each of the various aircraft I Government from drug smugglers and other law breakers and have used those dimension figures supplied by the aircraft are apparently used by the Army to support on-going U.S. anti manufacturer, but have relied on performance figures deter drug operations. The Army has steadfastly declined to offer mined by the Army itself. This was a conscious decision on my specific information about the aircraft for fear of compromising part, forthough an aircraft's measurements are more accurately the confidentiality of the C/EAP and American anti-smuggling determined by the firm that built the craft, the same machine's operations and methods, and I have therefore chosen not to top speed, service ceiling, or load-carrying capacity in actual include them in this volume. operational service is often vastly different to that calculated by Iwould welcome any information on, or photos of, additional asales-minded manufacturer. Having said this, however, Imust Army aircrafttypes, aswell as anycorrections to the information remindthe readerthatspecific performancefigures cited forany contained in this volume. Readers may contact me via the particular aircraft represent the optimum performance ofwhich publisher, and may rest assured that I am always happy to be that machine was capable under the best possible conditions. corrected. Speed, service ceiling, range, fuel consumption, and maximum payloadfigures are neverabsolute,fortheyare dependentupon Stephen Harding such factors asthe fuel load and number ofcrewmen carried by Springfield, Virginia. the aircraft, the geographic area in which the machine is December 1989 operating, the number and type ofweapons carried, whetHer or not the aircraft is flying in formation, and so on. Two otherwise identical aircraftwill often havediffering performance capabilities. under exactly the same circumstances. The figures cited in this volume are therefore based upon the United States Army's determination of each aircraft's optimum performance under ideal conditions. All information contained in this book was obtained from non-classified open sources. This applies especially to the designations, capabilities, and numbers of those Army aircraft formerly or currently used for classified intelligence-related activities and special operations, and to the designations and capabilities of intelligence-gathering, navigation, avionics, and other systems fitted to such aircraft. Finally, I must admit that, despite my attempts to include all relevant information about every applicable airplane, this book is almost certainly incomplete. As the reader will surmise after even a brief review of the contents of this book, the United States Army has used adizzying array of aircraft types and sub types. In many cases a single example of a particular airplane was borrowed from another militaryservice, used extensively in Army markings, and returned to its original owners, all without

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In the just over forty years since its creation the air arm of the modern United States Army has grown from a relatively small and ill-equipped liaison and battlefield observation force into a vast, complex and capable organization employing more than 10,000 fixed- and rotary-wing attack, reconnaiss
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