On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 3:07 PM, Bob W <[email protected]> wrote: > [...] >> >> The Chinook gunships never did play a large role in Vietnam as only 4 were >> ever built, only 3 ever made it to Vietnam and they only were actively > used >> for a couple years early in the war (Late 65 through mid-68). They were > very >> heavuly armed though. The main use of the Chinook in Vietnam was as a >> medium lift helicopter hauling cargo or larger detachments of troops. >> >> I suspect you're thinking of the very distinctive sound of the Huey's, >> especially in the Gunship role. Huey Snakes, and later the Huey Cobra were >> the primary gunships used in Vietnam. >> >> Note the Chinook may be loud, but the sound isn't terribly distinctive, > they >> sound very similar to a number of other twin-rotor designs, many of which >> were still active back then. >> >> If you want a really distinctive sound though, nothing matches the Bell > 214's. >> They're a Huey on a serious case of steriods and sound exactly like that, > with >> a much deeper and slower version of the Huey's classic whop-whop sound. > > this is a Chinook, the type of helicopter I'm thinking of. This video > doesn't capture the depth of the bass sound of the rotors, but it is a very > distinctive sound indeed, quite unlike any of the other types of helicopter > I see regularly (the usual police & traffic types) and which I used to see > when I was growing up on RAF bases - including hueys. > > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWb40UEXGMU> > > Bob >
Yes, I'm quite familiar with the Chinook. The sound is distinctive to the rotor pattern rather than the type, a Labrador/Sea Knight sounds pretty similar (if a bit quieter), as do the other dual-rotor types. Single-rotor designs, which are more common, especially outside North America, sound very different. IIRC the Chinook is the only major dual-rotor type that ever saw service in the RAF as the configuration was mostly used by Piasecki (later Boeing Vertol) and only the US, JSDF and Canadian Forces bought more than one single model of their helicopters. During Vietnam there were 3-4 different helicopters of this basic configuration in service with the US Army and US Navy/Marine Corps. -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
