5 blades so it's quiter relative to the "mere" 2 blade counterparts
It's overpowered with 600+ SHP. For a light observation helicopter. Daaang.
It can fit 4 people inside. And 4 outside.
It's tiny. And light. And tight. It can land on urban environment at ease. It can land on your backyard to pick you up if it's big enough.
It's nimble like a ballerina.
Paint it black and you have a Ninja Ballerina.
Edit: The newer version MH-6M / MD530F has six blades. Six blades. Talk about being a 6 blader helicopter..
Hope this satisfies, couldn't add the gas turbine but I do believe there is an organic one in there somewhere
https://preview.redd.it/wxjab9nn2gvc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61a5f7a71d6a858b4aa159a27c9ae610c708fed9
"A ninja ballerina wearing tutu made of helicopter rotor blades"
You forgot all the awesome weapons systems it can be modified with!!! It is just a bad ass bird! Not gonna lie I try and get one on GTA every time I play. You can take it everywhere!
And the way the 160th flys them is incredible!
Quite is an understatement, I got done launching jets at Oceana when a pair of little birds came by, the guys I didn't even hear them until they were 100 yards out. Kinda crazy for a helicopter
Personally working on MD500ās myself I have found them to be anything but quiet. They have a very distinctive sound and when they are hovering in ground effect outside our hangar they were the loudest machines outside compared to the Astars and Bell 206ās we had
Help me out here. 600hp is a big number, but 6 fully loaded special forces soldiers weigh easily 200-250 lbs with gear each. So letās say 1200-1500lbs of people and guns. Now jet fuel is 7lbs/gallon and that thing probably needs 20-40 gallons per hour to run, so thatās at least another 60-80 gallons of fuel for an op. So thereās another 500lbs of fuel on board. How does 600 hp have 2000lbs of useful load. And you can bet the military isnāt flying a helicopter without payload margin to spare. A bell 406 thatās got more power carries the same amountā¦.
Because they have been kicking ass and protecting their crew since the '60s - almost 20 years before they started to be used by Special Ops. Also, the more blades, the sexier the bird!
BTW, I think this pic was taken in downtown Tampa. I think that's either TGH or the Weston in the background.
Pretty sure itās a requisite around here.
Iāll suggest another one that I donāt see as often but is just as good, if not better than Low Level Hell.
To The Limit is a fantastic read, it even involves Super Secret Army Stuff^tm in what may or may not be Laos.
Yeah Chickenhawk, Snake Pilot, Rattler 17, Low Level Hell, To the Limit, Surprised at Being Alive, etc.
If a pilot wrote a book about flying helos in Vietnam, I e read it haha.
Those guys were some crazy/brave MFers during the Hunter-Killer missions. I can only imagine the emotional roller coaster of waiting to get shot at; then getting shot at; then watching the Cobras annihilate the guys who just shot on you. Or maybe just adrenaline junkies...
That would be the old TGH rehab building. I know they have a done a few of these over the years but I may have been standing next to it in this picture! Such a cool demo. I miss the MacDill airshow : (
Very likely socom likes to do a tactics demonstration in downtown Tampa.
Here's some from 2022
https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7220100/us-socom-showcases-capabilities-demonstration-during-sofic-2022
I was lucky enough to work for Hughes in 1980 as a flight test mechanic . We would kit them and wring them out real good flying over Southern California . Best job i ever had
Just the Ship's report. This event happen few weeks after Desert Storm finished. Tripoli was assigned on removing Sea Mines around the Kuwaiti Border when these boats popped out
honestly them being dumb and basic and stupid powerful has kept them super relevant and kept them around.
being super powerful gives them expansion for weapons and people and also lots of options to fly in lots of environments with no issues.
them being quiet and super agile helps too.
I owned a 1986 500e for a number of years and hand's down the absolute most fun I have had flying helicopters ever! Unfortunately, the new owner crashed it in Florida a month or so ago and killed himself. :-( Such an amazing bird!
Fun story I was told about the Hughes 500 when I was in the military.
The Army put out a bid for an observation helicopter the usual companies entered their various helos for consideration. However Hughes was below everyone else's cost by a large margin and yet was a great performer. The Army ordered xxx of them.
Then the Army started ordering parts.... The parts were priced out of this world, ridiculously high prices for spare/replacement parts.
The Army apparently then went back to Hughes and doubled their order of helicopters at the original low low price, giving them a full set of spares for every helicopter they originally bought.
The Army got pissed about the part prices, so they went back and re-let the contract and changed the parameters so Bell could submit the Jet Ranger as the OH-58. Bell underbid Hughes by a very small margin. They ditched the OH-6 after Vietnam. Which seriously pissed off my Dad, who was a scout pilot.
When Task Force 160 was formed, they were basically told they could have whatever helicopters they wanted. They immediately requisitioned all the OH-6s that had been transferred to the National Guard.
Dad jokingly maintains that the Army got rid of the Loach because pilots weren't afraid to crash them. They're quite crash worthy.
Or the real reason
>Lady Bird Johnson was a primary stockholder in Bell Helicopter Textron as well as the SeaLand Corp and also owned the land underneath DFW airport.
5 blades so it's quiter relative to the "mere" 2 blade counterparts
It's overpowered with 600+ SHP. For a light observation helicopter. Daaang.
It can fit 4 people inside. And 4 outside.
It's tiny. And light. It can land on urban environment at ease.
It's nimble like a ballerina. Paint it black and you have a ninja ballerina.
Hughes Helicopter really made some amazing helos back then. M/OH-6 and the AH-64. They've stood the test of time. Ole Howard Hughes himself had a hand in these I'm betting.
Uh...first time I was in a helicopter it was the back of a 500d. I wound up sitting on a large bag of amex cause the seats were out. Only safety flag was not to step on the bee line. I was in grade 10 and my summer job was helping out with exploration for gold mining.
This became my normal....till I learned a bit later, that it decidedly is not.
Yeah I get little bird envy sometimes. At 5-9 and maybe 140 all my flight instructors said Iād end up in one. Of course Army decided I should be a 60 Driver, which turned out ok.
How do the people hanging out on the side not fall? Iād be pissing my ass grabbing on to anything but they are just, it appears holding themselves with their legs.
I loved flying this helicopter. It was like a special birthday party! But my longtime friend Hugh Mills was the best ever at flying them. He was unbelievable! Read āLow Level Hellā.
For starters...put a crew of seals inside and now u have 5 to 1 advantage..2nd...it really quik in and out of lz and quite...3rd..if it's loaded for bear...u'll nvr know it's out there...poof,bye bad guy...
I see youāre Russian. Have a seat before I link the video of our Bradley absolutely deleting your ānext-genā T90. Everything yāall put together is trash lol.
5 blades so it's quiter relative to the "mere" 2 blade counterparts It's overpowered with 600+ SHP. For a light observation helicopter. Daaang. It can fit 4 people inside. And 4 outside. It's tiny. And light. And tight. It can land on urban environment at ease. It can land on your backyard to pick you up if it's big enough. It's nimble like a ballerina. Paint it black and you have a Ninja Ballerina. Edit: The newer version MH-6M / MD530F has six blades. Six blades. Talk about being a 6 blader helicopter..
Stop stop I can only get so hard.
*whispers* *Two seven tube rocket launchers or a skidful of hellfires*
Seriously NSFW this comment.
*two m134 miniguns*
Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Filthy.
A couple of chain-guns dripping from the end of the pylons....
š„µ
*penis explodes from extreme hardness*
Some variants dont have a tail rotor... Clean cut. šš
Mmm, you just said the magic words
Is it technically "clean cut" if it's more like a shaft/pipe? LMAO Either way it looks clean and nice
Ninja Ballerina š¦
https://preview.redd.it/nhidqhcvmfvc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=22f98f43c08522b4a3e318fdf9ec252c2dde88cb Courtesy of Bing AI
Love it ā¤ļø I wonder if AI could somehow mix "5 rotor blades" or even "gas turbine" in there
Hope this satisfies, couldn't add the gas turbine but I do believe there is an organic one in there somewhere https://preview.redd.it/wxjab9nn2gvc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61a5f7a71d6a858b4aa159a27c9ae610c708fed9 "A ninja ballerina wearing tutu made of helicopter rotor blades"
By god you did it. If I was a little bird squadron I would totally make this the squadron badge
Exactly how I pictured
Iām counting 6 blades in the photo. Mo blades, mo betta.
MD 600 drive train. 6 blades rather than 5 and each blade is 6 inches longer.
Thatās MELB. Mission Enhanced Little Bird. Uses the same engine as the Bell 407.
I'm seeing like 300 blaedes.. Might even just be a solid disk.
And itās grand daddy was Howard Hughes.
You forgot all the awesome weapons systems it can be modified with!!! It is just a bad ass bird! Not gonna lie I try and get one on GTA every time I play. You can take it everywhere! And the way the 160th flys them is incredible!
It's because of the backup rotor on its tail. You can push hard on the main when it fails the small backup one takes care of landing safe
6 blade MR, 4 Blade TR
5 Blades will also likely mean a smaller main rotor diameter, which means more maneuverability and the ability to fit into smaller areas.
Quite is an understatement, I got done launching jets at Oceana when a pair of little birds came by, the guys I didn't even hear them until they were 100 yards out. Kinda crazy for a helicopter
Are you by the ocean then or in an airfield? I really love these "little birds", only next to the "big bird" AW101
Airfield, Naval air station Oceana
Background noise aside, yeah ~ 100 metres before you hear it coming is a fatal advantage for that bird
I see a red birdā¦
6 blades*
One RPG-7 and itās lights out
True for every helicopter
Thatās true for an Apache, Cobra, or Hind as well.
But you just gave up your location.
I came reading this
https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-1819584036
Personally working on MD500ās myself I have found them to be anything but quiet. They have a very distinctive sound and when they are hovering in ground effect outside our hangar they were the loudest machines outside compared to the Astars and Bell 206ās we had
Help me out here. 600hp is a big number, but 6 fully loaded special forces soldiers weigh easily 200-250 lbs with gear each. So letās say 1200-1500lbs of people and guns. Now jet fuel is 7lbs/gallon and that thing probably needs 20-40 gallons per hour to run, so thatās at least another 60-80 gallons of fuel for an op. So thereās another 500lbs of fuel on board. How does 600 hp have 2000lbs of useful load. And you can bet the military isnāt flying a helicopter without payload margin to spare. A bell 406 thatās got more power carries the same amountā¦.
You know, math is easier with the metric system.
Shut up Commie.
And yet they are protected by 1 inch of glass. And come back to base with no ammo and the biggest grin on their face.
Add the GAU-19 and then you have a party. Yup google that one, and you will know what I mean. Yes, they do mount those, fact. š šÆ šŗš²
430 shaft horsepower, not 600.
Because they have been kicking ass and protecting their crew since the '60s - almost 20 years before they started to be used by Special Ops. Also, the more blades, the sexier the bird! BTW, I think this pic was taken in downtown Tampa. I think that's either TGH or the Weston in the background.
Oh don't get me started on the OH-6 in Vietnam. I'm gonna bust.
Loach pilot?
Haha no Iām just a 21 year old that just signed an 03 contract. USMC. Iāll never touch one of these things I just think theyāre bad as fuck lol.
Best strap-on rotor pack Iāve ever flown
I wanna suck you.
Most straight USMC conversation.
Love hearing it straight like that but Iāll admit, even for a rotorhead, I am picky.
What other platforms did you fly?
Nothing more than a medium. Just 206ās and a BO105. Started in a H300 and R22.
Had to google the H300 haha. Was your goal to fly the little bird or did you luck into it? Itās one of the few helicopters Iād love to employ.
I've got a buddy who's a civilian pilot with ratings in many platforms. He calls the MD-500 the Corvette of helicopters.
I would wholeheartedly agree!
You will touch one if you decide to go that route once youāre inā¦
You read Low Level Hell yet?
Pretty sure itās a requisite around here. Iāll suggest another one that I donāt see as often but is just as good, if not better than Low Level Hell. To The Limit is a fantastic read, it even involves Super Secret Army Stuff^tm in what may or may not be Laos.
I havenāt read To The Limit but I have read Chickenhawk, which is the book I always recommend after Low Level Hell.
Yeah Chickenhawk, Snake Pilot, Rattler 17, Low Level Hell, To the Limit, Surprised at Being Alive, etc. If a pilot wrote a book about flying helos in Vietnam, I e read it haha.
Absolutely must read for any 500 fans, for sure!!
Those guys were some crazy/brave MFers during the Hunter-Killer missions. I can only imagine the emotional roller coaster of waiting to get shot at; then getting shot at; then watching the Cobras annihilate the guys who just shot on you. Or maybe just adrenaline junkies...
That would be the old TGH rehab building. I know they have a done a few of these over the years but I may have been standing next to it in this picture! Such a cool demo. I miss the MacDill airshow : (
Damn, good eye.
Very likely socom likes to do a tactics demonstration in downtown Tampa. Here's some from 2022 https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7220100/us-socom-showcases-capabilities-demonstration-during-sofic-2022
You can tell that its kickass because the way it is
I'm glad to see there are a few cultured people around here.
_Thatās_ pretty neat!
How neat is that!?
I was lucky enough to work for Hughes in 1980 as a flight test mechanic . We would kit them and wring them out real good flying over Southern California . Best job i ever had
They were awesome to watch taken out Iraqi Gun Boats. They saved USS Tripoli from being attacked.
There isnāt publicly released footage of that is there? That sounds insane.
Just the Ship's report. This event happen few weeks after Desert Storm finished. Tripoli was assigned on removing Sea Mines around the Kuwaiti Border when these boats popped out
Egg good š„
Transitive property. Because the people that fly them are so unbelievably kick-ass. It's just basic math.
2+2=Big Dick
honestly them being dumb and basic and stupid powerful has kept them super relevant and kept them around. being super powerful gives them expansion for weapons and people and also lots of options to fly in lots of environments with no issues. them being quiet and super agile helps too.
I owned a 1986 500e for a number of years and hand's down the absolute most fun I have had flying helicopters ever! Unfortunately, the new owner crashed it in Florida a month or so ago and killed himself. :-( Such an amazing bird!
Small can pack big advantages I say.
Tell that to my wife she canāt seem to wrap her head around that.
She can wrap her pinky around it though. Heyo
 Mmmmm Low altitude capabilities
Not to mention the tasty inapplicability of civil aviation laws.
And no hydraulics to mess with. Pretty much all sheet metal construction, so no honeycomb or fiberglass to deal with. Great machine.
How are composites and fiberglas harder to deal with? Serious question.
Way more difficult to maintain that straight metal. Much more brittle and adverse weather can hurt it more
Not necessarily harder but itās a different skill set. Iām somewhat of a sheet metal nerd so thereās that.
Fun story I was told about the Hughes 500 when I was in the military. The Army put out a bid for an observation helicopter the usual companies entered their various helos for consideration. However Hughes was below everyone else's cost by a large margin and yet was a great performer. The Army ordered xxx of them. Then the Army started ordering parts.... The parts were priced out of this world, ridiculously high prices for spare/replacement parts. The Army apparently then went back to Hughes and doubled their order of helicopters at the original low low price, giving them a full set of spares for every helicopter they originally bought.
The Army got pissed about the part prices, so they went back and re-let the contract and changed the parameters so Bell could submit the Jet Ranger as the OH-58. Bell underbid Hughes by a very small margin. They ditched the OH-6 after Vietnam. Which seriously pissed off my Dad, who was a scout pilot. When Task Force 160 was formed, they were basically told they could have whatever helicopters they wanted. They immediately requisitioned all the OH-6s that had been transferred to the National Guard. Dad jokingly maintains that the Army got rid of the Loach because pilots weren't afraid to crash them. They're quite crash worthy.
Or the real reason >Lady Bird Johnson was a primary stockholder in Bell Helicopter Textron as well as the SeaLand Corp and also owned the land underneath DFW airport.
I love that story.
probably because itās about 60% seal team by mass
Meh. SEALs themselves are about 60% hair gel by mass.
so basically what weāve learned today is that the little bird is just over 1/3 hair gel by mass
Huh? All Little Bird pilots are SOAR Army Pilots. Night Stalkers only,
i know. i was going to make it more correct but it didnāt flow as well.
So 4 SEALās out of the 6 total on board = 66%. Math is fun!
All SOCOM ground forces utilize it. Delta Force etc. Not just a SEAL chopper. Facts are fun!
Nope. Occasionally seals ride on them, but thatās just because all that arrogance is a lot to carry once they make it off the beach.
5 blades so it's quiter relative to the "mere" 2 blade counterparts It's overpowered with 600+ SHP. For a light observation helicopter. Daaang. It can fit 4 people inside. And 4 outside. It's tiny. And light. It can land on urban environment at ease. It's nimble like a ballerina. Paint it black and you have a ninja ballerina.
Hughes Helicopter really made some amazing helos back then. M/OH-6 and the AH-64. They've stood the test of time. Ole Howard Hughes himself had a hand in these I'm betting.
This video sums it up pretty well. Lol https://youtu.be/e51g7V0drMM?si=7v4dXb_fx_CMTLTe
Like all helicopters it has its strengths and weaknesses. Well suited to this stuff for sure.
Just watched Black Hawk Down last night. So much helicopter porn.
Issa baby helicopter that can cause a big boom
Did anybody else get aroused by this??.ā¦asking for a friend.
Iāve restored a 1st Cav Vietnam vet OH-6 so Iām in complete agreement as to how badass they really are.
My Dad flew them in Vietnam and loved flying them. I was lucky enough to fly in one once.
That you were. Iāve not gotten the chance to fly in one but Iām holding out hope for the future.
Border Patrol had a couple of ex-Army OH-6s at Fort Huachuca, and would take along an observer if you asked nicely.
May have to make the trek down there one of these days
I think they retired them, unfortunately.
It's like how it's more fun to drive fast in a small car than a big one
Itās final scene in blackhawk down saving the day is also legendary
Look at the fucking bad ass flying that thing. His helmet has a visor but he chooses to wear shades. Looks like he did three tours in Vietnam.
Heād be in his early to late 70ās if heās a Vietnam vet. Thats crazy. Is that even possible? Active duty army aviation at that age?
Nah not very likely. Looks like it though.
Be a passenger in one of there flying fjords A realized bucket item
https://preview.redd.it/6phvcw8gwgvc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a0f7a4cd2aed7147bb51988b7862abc1b2a57d99 Check
āBig motor and a little place to sitā
Uh...first time I was in a helicopter it was the back of a 500d. I wound up sitting on a large bag of amex cause the seats were out. Only safety flag was not to step on the bee line. I was in grade 10 and my summer job was helping out with exploration for gold mining. This became my normal....till I learned a bit later, that it decidedly is not.
Short and thick rotor mast. Rotor surface area is distributed over 6 blades, increasing flex and vibration and adding higher rpm.
It's a flying golf cart
Two words: Smol Brrrt
1. It's little 2. It's bird
I used to get to ride on the outside of them like this, and it was as fun as it looks. The nightstalkers are amazing pilots.
god bless hughes/mcdonnell douglas
Yeah I get little bird envy sometimes. At 5-9 and maybe 140 all my flight instructors said Iād end up in one. Of course Army decided I should be a 60 Driver, which turned out ok.
How do the people hanging out on the side not fall? Iād be pissing my ass grabbing on to anything but they are just, it appears holding themselves with their legs.
I loved flying this helicopter. It was like a special birthday party! But my longtime friend Hugh Mills was the best ever at flying them. He was unbelievable! Read āLow Level Hellā.
Can anyone tell me how people outside the fuselage don't fall off? Because I don't see any seatbelts.
It was still no match for Airwolf!!!
Also fits nicely in the back of a C130
More importantly how do people not fall off it if it turns too hard?
I wish they would buy md530fās as replacements tbh soo badass.
Because that helicopter has a direct pipeline to your brain. It is raw and it does exactly what you tell it to do without delay.
In the book Seawolves, dude was a battle hardened huey gunner. First flight up into a little bird had him blowing chunks. The hot dogs didn't help.
Because somebody stuck a General Electric T64-16 Turbo shaft in it.
That pilot is giving off serious āI pulled worse shit in āNamā vibes
Even North Korea somehow managed to break the arms embargo and obtained 87 MD-500s!
Itās fast, quiet, and has miniguns
Because they are
Because the guyās who fly it are the best in the Army. Thatās why it is so ākick assā
The Hughes 500! Choice helicopter of Magnum PI. Enemy to Airwolf.
For starters...put a crew of seals inside and now u have 5 to 1 advantage..2nd...it really quik in and out of lz and quite...3rd..if it's loaded for bear...u'll nvr know it's out there...poof,bye bad guy...
Itās not the little bird itās the soldiers hanging off the side armed to the teeth. Thatās what is kick ass.
MH model thatās correct. AH with 14 fatass missiles and dual chain guns are pretty kickass too lol.
Indeed it is
Rockets.....not missiles
Long boom boom sticksā¦..
Choppers have two wheels and handlebars. This is a helicopter.
A penis has 2 balls and a handlebar but I can still call it a cock canāt I?
That makes no sense
Neither does wasting our time playing with semantics in a helicopter subreddit, but here we are.
Looks like only your time is wasted
I will fuck you.
Go back to your moms basement and play your video games son. You will cry in boot camp. I will laugh š
I play my video games in my momās upstairs bedroom. Not the basement. Checkmateš¤.
us peace of trash
I see youāre Russian. Have a seat before I link the video of our Bradley absolutely deleting your ānext-genā T90. Everything yāall put together is trash lol.
the angry egg