Bell’s new scout gunship looks awfully familiar
The fabled fan-favorite failure that was the RAH-66 Commanche is back- kind of. The doomed Boeing-Sikorsky helicopter -which captured imaginations and was featured in a variety of media and video games in the 1990s and 2000s- is back from the cancel grave, at least in appearance. The modern iteration... Read more
Last of the Kiowas: historic aircraft makes final flight with US Army at Fort Polk
Chuck CannonFort Polk Public Affairs Office FORT POLK, La. — On July 9 at 1 p.m., eight pilots with the 1st Battalion, 5th Aviation Regiment, flew OH-58C Kiowa helicopters in a double “V” formation over the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk for the aircrafts’ final flight at... Read more
Turkish Helicopter Gunships Are Heading to Pakistan
Pakistan has been hunting for new attack helicopters to replace its aging American-made AH-1 Cobras. Now Turkey’s ruling party has confirmed that Islamabad has picked the T129 ATAK in what is the largest Turkish-Pakistani arms deal in history for 30 of the sleek, two-seat gunships. It’s also a loss... Read more
The U.S. Army Tests Its New ‘Stealth’ Helicopter for the 2030s
Bell Helicopter engineers are looking at ways to reduce the radar signature of their new, next-generation V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft slated to be operational by the 2030s. While developers stop short of calling the new project a “stealth” helicopter, they do acknowledge they are engineering “stealthy” characteristics — such... Read more
The Strange Story of How North Korea Smuggled in 87 U.S. Scout Helicopters
On July 27, 2013, as a column of armored personnel carriers and tanks rumbled before the stand of Kim Jong Un to commemorate the end of a bloody war with the United States 60 years earlier, four small American-made MD 500E helicopters buzzed low overhead. You can see it... Read more
Breve historia del ─ finalmente ─ impresionante helicóptero Hind
El helicóptero ruso de ataque Mi-24 lleva más de 47 años volando. Ya es hora de que desmontemos algunos de los mitos más extendidos sobre el helicóptero de ataque que tantos nombres ha recibido. Cocodrilo . Vaso . Carro del Diablo . Hind . En... Read more
The Confederacy Almost Developed a Helicopter in 1862
It’s the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 and Union forces on Cemetery Ridge await the final Confederate assault. But instead of witnessing serried ranks of rebels marching across a mile of open ground into the maws of Yankee cannons, the bluecoat regiments are shocked... Read more
Russia Built a Naval Attack Helicopter It Can’t Use
The Russian navy’s Kamov Ka-52K attack helicopter will complete another round of shipboard tests before the end of 2019. The Russian Ministry of Defense will take delivery of the new aircraft shortly thereafter. “The helicopter trials are planned to be completed before the end of 2019. So, the deliveries... Read more
A Short History of the—Eventually—Awesome Hind Helicopter
Russia’s Mi-24 attack helicopter is more than 47 years old. It’s high time we busted some of the more widespread myths regarding the gunship that has gone by many names. Crocodile. Drinking Glass. Devil’s Chariot. Hind. In a celebratory press release following its 45th anniversary in 2014, Russian Helicopters—part... Read more
The U.S. Military Just Attached a Laser Weapon to an Apache Gunship
The thrust of the U.S. military’s laser weapon tests have focused on the sea, on land and aboard fixed-wing aircraft. You need a lot of power to generate a beam capable of burning through a target, which limits where you can stick a laser. But they can work on helicopters,... Read more

Robert Beckhusen

Managing Editor