gunship

As some of you will know I inhabit a version of the 1970s where all my favourite stuff entered service. One of these is the AH56 Cheyenne helicopter. This machine looks futuristic even half a century later.

Although the excellent AH1 Cobra was deployed to Europe in the 1970s and received TOW missiles to help it kill Soviet armour, noone else in NATO could afford it. That left W Germany sticking six HOT missile launchers on its Bo 105 light observation helicopter and the British Army SS11 missiles...

The US Huey Cobra was a formidable gunship helicopter. Unlike the later Apache which has found widespread use.with NATO, the Cobra did not get much NATO use. West Germany should have been a major user. TOW equipped Cobras would have added much to Bundeswehr units. Instead the Boelkow B105...

In the 1970s, with reference to the experience of the USAF in the Vietnam War. The ROC (also know as "Taiwan" ) Air Force was converted more than 10 C-119s into AC-119 gunships. (Armament: 5× or 6× 12.7 mm guns, previously used for F-86) Also, some C-119s with modified bomb slide rails are...

Did George Orwell invent the concept of the helicopter gunship in his novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' which he wrote in 1947? "April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war films. One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. Audience much amused...

In this Lockheed advertisment the AH-56 is shown with an additional outline, giving a deeper fuselage and it is advertised to be the basis for a transport for up to 30 passengers or as a ASW helicopter. Are there any other pictures, drawings or photos of mock-ups of these versions ?

CL-1700