To: Bert
When Bell lost out to Hughes on the LOACH contract they were left with that pug-ugly helicopter shown in the picture. They wanted to take it to commercial production and turned the design over to Raymond Loewy studios in New York City. Raymond Loewy was one of the preeminent industrial designers in the United States. When the second order for 1400 OH-6s came up Hughes raised the price, as they had not really made a profit on the first 1400 OH-6s. Hughes never invested in the OH-6 program and all of the tooling for the structure was made of plaster instead of metal. This plaster tooling was used on the first 1400 OH-6s and all of the commercial models of the H-500 (model 369) that were sold commercially until MacDac took them over. I do not know if that tooling is still being used.
The Army rejected the new cost structure and turned to Bell even though the FH-1100 would have been a better choice. It was the commercial version designed by the Loewy studios that the Army chose for the second production run.
