Restoring Cobras and Hueys at the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation is serious business. Based in Hampton, Georgia, the AAHF are caretakers to these iconic helicopters that once served in multiple historic conflicts.
It has been 50 years now since direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam war ended. Over 58,000 American servicemen were killed and 304,000 wounded, out of 2.7 million who served in the war. But those casualty numbers would have been much higher if not for the Bell UH-1 Huey and AH-1 Cobra.
Living history
The AHHF is run by a small staff and over 800 volunteers. Most museums show and tell with static non-flying machines, but it’s quite another experience with real combat veteran aircraft that are still flying. The impact on the public is greater when they can actually hear, feel, see and experience living history in action, and even purchase flights, and that’s exactly what AAHF provides.
Watch the video above for an exclusive 1-on-1 tour with the AAHF at their HQ.
“The riders who stick out the most are the kids who simply love the flying, but on the more emotional side is the actual veterans and their families,” says Steve Wages, a volunteer and former Director of Operations for the AAHF. “We get a lot of Vietnam veterans, who were so poorly treated when they came home that they really just shut it away and didn’t talk about it, so seeing these aircraft they once served on – or which even saved their lives – brings them to tears,” says Wages.
“It brings closure, and can be very cathartic for them. Some of them haven’t seen or flown on a Huey or Cobra since the war. They kind of relive some of those experiences, and kind of finally let go of them as well. It also provides closure and realization to their families, to see the
actual aircraft and even fly on them to get a small taste of what their loved ones did. Emotionally it’s overwhelming for them, and is worth all the hard work that we do.”
The non-profit was founded in 1997 to acquire, restore, maintain and fly the historic birds, preserving and presenting the legacy of Army aviation and engaging the public face to face. AAHF accomplishes their mission through aerial demos and static displays at air shows, offering ride programs, facilitating educational tours and supporting various events and STEM outreach programs. They actually run 3 chapters across the country, with the other two being in Mesa, Arizona and St Louis, Missouri.
They currently operate a fleet of five flying UH-1 Hueys and four or five flying AH-1 Cobras, with one of each based at both their other locations. They also have several more helicopters, which are used for static displays, movie props and spare parts to keep the flyable ones in the air.
Several volunteers are not only combat veterans of Vietnam, but Operation Desert Storm as well. Some are even veterans of both conflicts, and some even served with the same unit in both conflicts.
Some were shot down, some multiple times even, while others saw crew casualties. Several volunteers even served with the same birds they work on at AAHF.
Honoring the Helo that Saved Lives
American forces sustained many injuries in Vietnam, but less fatalities, thanks directly to MEDEVAC Huey crews. Their unprecedented mobility meant that, on average, it took less than one hour from the moment someone was wounded to the
time they arrived for hospitalization.
And thanks to the Huey, less than 1% of all Americans who were wounded, who survived the first 24 hours, actually died. Hueys flew over 500,000 missions and airlifted over 900,000 patients, nearly half of which were American.
And The Gunship That Shares Lineage With The Huey
But the Huey was too wide and slow when it came to attack capabilities. They flew as gunships, but were getting shot out of the sky left and right. Typically, other helicopters would scout ahead of Hueys just before air assaults to gather information about landing zones and enemy locations. But the Hueys were just too slow and couldn’t carry enough firepower.
So the Army came up with the Cobra. Bell even developed it based on their Huey in order to provide commonality with parts from Hueys the Army already operated, and to streamline supply and training. Thus was born the first purpose-built helicopter gunship to enter military service.
We could write all day about the history of these helicopters, but most of you already know that stuff, so let’s focus on AAHF.
From military service to AAHF
Most of the Cobras owned by AAHF came from Fort Drum, where the Army rebuilt and refurbished hundreds to sell as part of the Army’s Cobra retirement operations. They were stripped of parts, fluids drained, paint blasted off, and had new wire harnesses installed, along with new flight controls, generators, battery compartments and overhauled engines.
Some were gutted for parts and used as military training apparatus, but most were sold to military customers overseas.
Others were outfitted to fight forest fires and sold to the U.S. Forest Service and other forestry agencies, and more were custom-designed and sold to veterans’ organizations.
But AAHF did not have to buy their Cobras from the Fort Drum program. Instead, they acquired 13 on loan from the Army’s Tank Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) Loan and Donations Program, which qualifies museums, veteran service organizations, parks and other entities to receive donations of disabled military machinery (the Cobras are no longer weaponized). They track annual reports on the AAHF Cobras, conduct periodic inspections and enforce the terms of the conditional loans. A 14th non-flyable static Cobra was also acquired via more standard channels.
AAHF does however own all their Hueys, which were acquired via a Government Surplus Program, coming mostly from Louisiana and the Georgia National Guard.
When the last Black Hawk flies, it will be slingloaded to the Boneyard by a Huey
The Army started replacing Hueys with Black Hawks a long time ago, but they still keep many flying for various odd jobs. The Marines still use them in a front-line role, but with more modern versions like the UH-1Y, as Bell continues rolling new Hueys off the assembly line.
About 85% of AAHF’s existence comes from selling rides. It’s not uncommon to sell 10,000 rides in a year either, most of
which fly on the Hueys, which can take 10 people up at a time for 10-12 minutes. The Cobras can only fly one rider at a time, and therefore are a lot more expensive.
The military also occasionally contracts AAHF to support flight training with the Navy Test Pilot School at Pax River, Maryland, where they provide both Hueys and Cobras with instructors to supplement the student training and test pilot course.
AAHF Operates A Full Time Year Round Inspection Program
Keeping the old birds operational is no easy feat, and very expensive and time-consuming. AAHF employs paid certified A&P / IA mechanics, along with volunteers working under their own licenses to keep the aircraft in shape. They operate a full time year-round maintenance program cycling all the helicopters through various inspections on a regular basis.
Under AAHF the helicopters are considered Experimental Exhibition Aircraft operating as Living History Flight Experiences by the FAA, so they are required to be under an approved maintenance program, and what the FAA gave them to use is exactly what the Army used. It is step by step, check by check, and they don’t cut any corners. They double check everything.
Most of the work is all done in-house too, with the exception of big things like transmissions, engines, gear boxes and other life-limited hardware, which are sent to 145 repair stations to be worked on. At any given time you can visit their museum in Georgia and find several helicopters being worked on in different phases of inspections and work.
And They Maintain A Boneyard
They also have a boneyard at their HQ in Hampton, where they keep older and un-airworthy helicopters to use for parts.
“A lot of times this is the beginning of a rebuild, particularly for static displays”, says Wages. “This is where we pull hard-to-find parts, like panels to resurface and reuse. Most of the boneyard birds had an active service life in various incendiary places. They’ve all had a busy life.”
All in all, the AAHF has enough spare Hueys and Cobras to keep a handful of both platforms flying for maybe 15 more years, simply because the parts won’t last forever and are not being made anymore. Things like engines and transmission are relatively easy to come by (expensive), but other things are not, such as actuators and systems designed just for the helicopters in their previous service lives.
The saying “there is nothing as strong as the heart of a volunteer” rings true at AAHF, as everyone shares the same passion for the helicopters and aviation, as well as a mutual respect and appreciation for veterans, keeping the history alive and educating the public. But AAHF is also an opportunity for volunteers who are veterans themselves to exchange stories, bond and come together for the same cause, as they once did in military service. It’s also a chance for them to share their experiences with the public, many of whom may not have ever known or even talked with combat veterans directly.
AAHF Is Grateful For Volunteers
Several companies, corporations and various organizations help AAHF a great deal in various ways, without whom the
AAHF would not exist. AAHF is always open to new volunteers, and you do not have to be a veteran to be a AAHF member
either. They also accept donations to keep their operations going.
Look up air shows in your region to see when they will visit, or visit www.ArmyAV.org for more information. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram, where they provide regular updates on what they are up to.
