Last Bell AH-1Z delivered to the Corps
 

Last Bell AH-1Z delivered to the Corps, 189th Zulu and also marking the end of the H-1 production series since 1962

https://news.bellflight.com/en-US/21...gram-of-record

The first time I saw a Zulu was rain and wind swept Le Bourget, mid week Paris Air Show 2011

https://scontent-lcy1-2.xx.fbcdn.net...2w&oe=638CBCDA

https://scontent-lcy1-2.xx.fbcdn.net...FQ&oe=638CB5EE

https://scontent-lcy1-2.xx.fbcdn.net...oA&oe=638C8A01

cheers

I saw one of the first prototypes of the AH-1G fly over Fort Wolters, Texas in September 1967.....the one with retractable skids that later got written off in a crash.....and here we are in 2022 seeing the end of the Line with the end of production.

It mentions in the article that AH-1Zs are still in production for Bahrain and the Czech Republic, but the last of those will deliver in 2023, and it looks like that's it.

As far as I knew Romania is still (since like 2017) looking to obtain AH-1 and UH-1 for their fleet. Nigeria also has an order of 10 or so, of this year. I'm not sure if they've been built yet. Of course we thought that Poland was surely going to go with the Z, but that didn't happen (grrr...)
There are a dozen or so Cobras that were built for Pakistan, in storage right now, and not delivered. For the US, the 20+ or AH-1's were put into storage due to the USMC reshuffling last year.. so there are some undelivered/mothballed airframes parked... I believe Bell is still marketing the AH and UH Cobes to foreign nations, so maybe an order will restart production.

Nigeria was approved in April of this year to buy 12 AH-1Zs, but AFAIK no actual order has been signed. Thailand also looked at it but ended up buying AH-6s because thatwas all they could afford. If the Pakistan situation resolves itself, the question will be who pays the extra cost of bringing them out of storage and restoring them to flight status. If it doesn't get resolved the question becomes what happens to Pakistan's money? Our gov't might say, "Well, we gave the money to Bell so we don't have it anymore". Bell might say, "We received an order, took the money and built the AH-1Zs with it, so we don't have it all anymore. Besides, we fulfilled our contract and delivered; it's not our reprehensibility to reimburse Pakistan if they got stopped downstream of us" . A similar situation happened with embargoed F-16s for Pakistan.

One other issue is that once the line shuts down after the last few are delivered, the price for any new orders would have to include the cost of restarting the line, which may price the ZuluCobra out of competition.