Huey AH-1 Cobra

The Uh-1s were being constantly shot up, and down. The airforce needed a new helicopter. Bell inc. Went hard to work on a new design. The product... Huey Iroquois Warrior (later known as the Cobra). **++Side note:Infact one of the only differences from the two was the bubble to curved rectangular canope, and advanced electronics++** The design was based of a flat elipse. The Cobra with its general egg shape with a pointed nose, was only 3 feet wide. This made it very difficult to line up with from ground fire. But when they did, they could stay that way. The Cobra had a very odd problem. It could not find the enemy. After the VC learned about the Cobra they stopped shooting at it, it was suicide. The Hughes OH-6 Cayuse observation helicopter was brought into use. The little egg shaped helicopter flew low and taunted the VC to fire. When they had been shot at or seen the enemy, they called in the nearby Cobras. The Cobras devistaed the area killing anti-aircraft artillery. This lethal team was nealy unstoppable. However the VC came into possestion of the handheld high flying heat seeking anti-aircraft missile. This proved too deadly for a hot, leathal weapon, such as the Cobra. The designers quickly took the problems to hand, and funneled the heat created by the engines into the downwash produced by the rotors. Fitted with high intensity flares and chaffes, the aircraft took its position back on top. This however would only work if the aircraft were flying lower than safe from anti-aircraft guns fire. Flying on dead-mans curb, they proved to still be a powerful apendage. There have been many variations on this aircraft including FlIR (mid 1990s), dual engines (added by the marine corps mid 1980s), dual machine gun turrot replaced by a single tri-barroled mini chain-gun (mid 1970s), high tech electronics (added thoughout lifetime). Infact the AH-1 has changed from the Iroquois Warrior to the Cobra to the Super Cobra to the Sea Cobra to the King Cobra of today. Infact it has changed so much it has evolved into a new helicoter. Rumor has it that the next version will be called the Viper. . Specifications Developer Bell/Huey Length 13 m Rotor Span 13 m Width .97 m Power Plant J-60-P-2 X2 (newest) . Performance Action Data Ceiling 15,400 m Max LIFT 52,090 kg Payload 20,033 kg Top Speed 487 km/h Range 2,440 km . Armament Type Size Number Placement Standard Front Gun (1967) 7.62 mm 6 barrel 400 rds In a front nose 230 degree pan, 5 degree tilt rotatalble TAT-102A turrot (1975) 8.77 mm 3 barrel 400 rds "Vacant" 230 degree pan, 10 degree tilt rotatable turrot (1988) 9 mm 3 barrel 800 rds "Vacant" 230 degree pan, 30 degree tilt rotatalbe turrot Rockets 4 pods 160 Held in 20 pocket double deep pods (usual armament) Grenade Launchers 40 mm 30 grenades in cylinders TOW missile 8 Held in individual lauchers stacked in square formation (most popular formation) on each wing stub