Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the helicopter we know simply as “The 500”.
The 27th of February 1963 saw test pilots James Vittitoe and Raleigh Fletcher perform the first flight of a compact little egg-shaped helicopter at the Hughes Tool Company’s facility at Culver City in California. The YOH-6 was one of three entrants in the US Army’s “Light Observation Helicopter” contest for a new scout helicopter for the Army. The Army only purchased just over 1,400 helicopters but it has since gone on to be one of the legends of rotary-winged aviation.
Ships No.1 and 2. Copyright:Boeing.
In 1966, Hughes and the U.S. Army set twenty-three FAI world records, the majority in speed and time-to-height categories. The most remarkable of these was the distance record for a non-stop unrefuelled flight. In a flight lasting over 15 hours, Robert Ferry flew 2,213 miles and amazingly, this record still stands today. The only modification made to the prototype for this flight was the addition of a fuel tank in the rear compartment.
FAI.
In the late 1960’s, the OH-6A became the “Hughes 500” and became available to comercial helicopter operators the world over. It proved to be a great success and as well as being a useful aircraft for the myriad roles undertaken by commercial helicopters, it has become the aircraft-of-choice for many very particular jobs like;
• Aerial Powerline Repair
• Aerial Tree-Trimming
• Live Animal Capture
If you absolutely, positively have to do a toe-in, a 500 with tall skids would probably be your weapon-of-choice too. The Tuna Boat boys seem to like it, too and many Police Air Support Units in the U.S. simply replace their old 500s with new ones.
The 500 has starred on the big screen and small. Probably one of the most recognisable helicopters ever was a candy-striped 500D that flew in Hawaii in the 1980’s in support of a certain mustacheoed P.I.
A significant amount of rotorcraft technology has been test-flown on the OH-6/500 down through the years. Some of the technology trialled by the 500 include;
• Quiet Rotorcraft Technology. “The Quiet One” OH-6A prototype is allegedly the quietest helicopter yet to fly, quieter even than the YO-3 “Quiet Star”.
• Mast-Mounted Sight technology. The Hughes 500 was the first helicopter to fly with an operational mast-mounted sight in the late-seventies, built by Martin Marrietta.
• N.A.S.A. and Hughes used an OH-6A to test-fly a major and successful programme exploring “Higher Harmonic Control” in helicopters, a technology that some manufacturers are today incorporating into their helicopters to actively reduce vibration from the rotor system.
• Hughes test-flew their earliest composite main rotor system on a 500E. This rotor system was later adopted for the MD900 Explorer.
• The “NOTAR” anti-torque system was initially flown on an OH-6A test-bed and has gone into production on the MD520N and MD902 Explorer.
• The Hughes 530MG Defender flew in 1984 with what can probably be regarded as one of the earliest “glass cockpit” displays, paving the way for the type of cockpit displays in use on many helicopters in production today.
• Today, Boeing have a pair of prototypes that are pioneering autonomous rotorcraft technology. One prototype has flown with no pilot on-board. They have also tested the AVMS flight control system on the same prototype. This provides tactile information to the pilot through a side-stick cyclic. A number of “auto-land” systems have been tested including one by Thales for shipboard operations.
Boeing.
The 500 can also lift another 500 on a sling and Robert Ferry’s world distance record flight saw his YOH-6A lift-off at a weight three time’s its empty weight. The 500 has flown with a 4-, 5- and 6-blade main rotor system and a 2- and 4-blade tail rotor and no tail rotor at all (NOTAR). One 500 set a round-the-world speed record while another flew across the Atlantic.
John Manning.
The 500 has been licence-built in Argentina, Italy, Japan and South Korea and it remains in production today for military and civilian customers. All in all, not a bad record for a helicopter that measures less than thirty feet, nose to tail.
On top of all this, it is a great helicopter to fly and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
US Army Museum Archives via Ray Wilhite.
500 Fan.