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Fun fact about the inventor, Igor Sikorsky: Born in the Russian Empire, in Kiev, before emigrating and becoming a US citizen. So he's a Russian-Ukrainian-American. Hell yeah! 🇺🇸

My father worked at General Electric in the jet propulsion division. He was very proud of his contribution to the development of the Blackhawk engines because they could fly in conditions that would ground an Iroquois. Every time soldiers are rescued in adverse conditions by a Blackhawk I think of that as my father reaching back from the grave.

Story from the early days - I was stationed in Panama in the mid-80s. When the Blackhawk first arrived, one medevac version was immediately used to save a soldier who was injured in a live-fire exercise on the Atlantic side of the canal (Ft. Sherman if I recall correctly). The main Army hospital was on the Pacific side, approximately 50 miles away. Previously, the medevac team had the UH-1, but because the new (at the time) UH-60 was so much faster, they were able to leave the hospital, zip over to the site of the injury, and get the soldier back to the hospital in roughly the time it would've taken the UH-1 to get to the injury site. The UH-60 was credited with saving the soldier's life because of the quickness of getting him to the advanced care he needed.

As a firefighter there’s nothing more badass then seeing a black hawk drop 2,600 gallons of water when your about to get burnt over.

It’s always a good day when the electrician shows up

As a former side mirror with a machine gun on the black hawk i approve this video….

The Black Hawk is so versatile that the Navy decided to take it, paint it haze gray, slap some torpedo tubes, penguin or Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers & Sonar buoys on it & call it a Sea Hawk. It does many of the same missions for the navy along with anti-submarine warfare (that's what the torpedoes & sonar buoys are for), and pretty much every ship currently commissioned in the Navy has at least ones, even small boys like the LCS & DDGs.

My uncle helped design the Blackhawk. These things were made so impressively that, though he has been retired for nearly thirty years, he still gets brought, (sometimes flown,) in to help fix things when something actually goes wrong inside of one because he is one of the only ones who knows how to fix it.

These are the birds my daughter spends her time arming and maintaining off the Eisenhower. I love the stories she has about these things. She said the most freakish things she watched these birds do is land on a rolling deck in rough seas.

YEEEEES, I’ve been waiting for this episode. Rather disappointed that you didn’t talk about it’s history, because the way that it won the military contract is just so on point for the Black Hawk. There was some sort of avionic malfunction during the test flight, and the prototype black hawk crash landed in a forest. When they found the crash sight, the most damaged part of the scene was the trees the helo crashed into. The chassis was fine. Aside from a few scrapes and bruises, the men inside were fine. I think there was only a bent blade or two which could be fixed, and the malfunction wasn’t even anything that would require a major recall. Needless to say, it remains - what I would call - the weirdest flex of any piece military hardware. Truly task failed successfully.

When I saw this video talking about the blackhawk I couldn't resist watching it. By far loved that his favorite variant was the HH-60, or the combat search and rescue platform. I had the honor of being a crew chief as part of the Air Force's Special Operations Rescue Unit. I'm proud to say my fellow crew chief's and I assisted the PJs (Pararescueman) and flight crew with saving over 2500 lives in the 6 years I was serving. I still carry the motto of the Green Feet in my heart "These things we do... That others may live"

For 15 years I flew A,L and M model Blackhawks in the Army. (Assault and MEDEVAC) I miss it so much. It was always my favorite helicopter and I feel blessed and honored to have flown her. My fellow pilots and crewchiefs/gunners/medics are some of the most awesome humans I ever met.

The Blackhawk is like the Sherman tank. Countless variations suited for every need and has a famous movie for it to boot.

As a medic with the 101st I can attest to the versatility of this bird. Great video

So let me get this straight...not only is this helicopter insanely adaptable, capable of performing a variety of roles...not only is it sleek and sexy as hell in appearance...but the thing can mount two of what essentially is the rear mounted tri-barreled .50 cal anti-aircraft guns from the M-12 Warthog from Halo? ....that makes me feel some kind of way.

0:50 This is the greatest advertisement I have ever seen in my life. Bravo.

I still think the UH1 is the most iconic of all time - heck they're still used today more then 60 years later. Great video!

Bro, that tangent leading into no metric in the moon and the "tactical acquisition" aka S.T.E.A.L. got me rolling. The rotor wash from these whirly gigs is awesome. I was at the Embassy in Iraq and it was something else. Saw these doing things a chopper should never be able to do. Thanks for the laughs Doc, shout out to the family! Insert MP review push here! Viper7 out

In my last deployment to Afghanistanin (2012),we had a green on blue situation on our FOB and we had 2 wounded Soldiers pinned down by an Afghani soldier with a SAW. CAS was 30 minutes away, and like perfect timing we had 2 Blackhawks show up for a PAXs mission. I called them up, explained the situation and they did gun runs using their door gunners until one of the gunners took a round to the neck, but the helos did their job and provided enough cover so we could grab those wounded Soldiers and get them back to the BAS and eventually MEDIVACed out. The gunner on the bird also lived. I was credited as the only FO/JFO in country to have done gun runs using a Blackhawk during that deployment. Cool times indeed

Love your content! One correction though, the Apollo Guidance Computer used metric units for all calculations (way simpler, less computing power required), and only converted the outputs to Imperial on the displays. I've met both Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, two of my all time heroes.

Ever since I first laid eyes on the Blackhawk as a young lad, it has continued to be my favorite helicopter

We definitely need a video on Admiral Lee. The man who turned 16" battleship rifles into sniper rifles deserves a video.

When showing the 50 black hawks, the song "Rise of the Valkyrie" from Apocalypse Now should be playing. It's in the Army Manual. (In the back with small letters)

My Wife was an Air Force Crew Chief on a Pave Hawk doing Combat Rescue!! She is probably the MOST BADASS Woman I Know!

Even the F'ing Coast Guard has a Blackhawk

Nothing will get you harder while going door to door when you hear that beautiful sound chopping through the air....

Blackhawk door gunner, Desert Storm. When I first got to the 101st, I heard tales of Blackhawk crashes, malfunctions, etc. During my time there I never felt unsafe in one. During an op just prior to Desert Storm kicking off, we ingested a bird in to the starboard engine. The TGT gauge spiked, but that was it. Continued the op and went home. Sturdy, well made aircraft.

Richard William Pearse (3 December 1877 - 29 July 1953) was a New Zealand farmer and inventor who performed pioneering aviation experiments. Witnesses interviewed many years afterward describe observing Pearse flying and landing a powered heavier-than-air machine on 31 March 1903, nine months before the Wright brothers flew.

Children's medical center of Dallas has one of the few civilian versions of it, during Katrina it was used to move hospitalized people out of the storms way. My small town hospital had a tiny helipad and it was surrounded by pine trees. So while the pilot decided if he wanted to land at the helipad of cross town to the airport it hovered over my house and caused just about everything on my shelves to vibrate off said shelves.

I like the black hawk but i think my favorite heli has to be the UH-1 Huey. Something about the sound it makes with the 2 blade rotor, just perfect.

Fun fact about the DAP, the 160th SOAR should have gotten the Apache, but they don't stow as easily for strategic redeployment and make the logistical footprint larger. That is why the 160th uses the DAP.

I would say the huey is the most iconic or whatever you said. Known, famous, it's grandpa's Blackhawk. All the same stuff

What a workhorse of a bird, crazy how many applications the military has found for it.

When I was in Iraq, we had an issue with combatants of some sort sneaking up to the wall of our perimeter and blindly lobbing makeshift mortars of various types and potential lethality over that wall. I was posted in a guard tower about 50m from the wall, and can see over it. In the distance approximately half a click away was a small tree and bush area that I thought of as an oasis because everything else everywhere else was sand, dirt, and dust. One late afternoon in the summer of 2007 I hear what sounds like an odd helicopter sound but I can't see it or tell exactly the direction. The area we were in was a maze made of walls of 15' tall jersey barriers and they were muffling and distorting sound. They were there so if a mortar was lobbed in at us and successfully detonated the impact would be negligible. Well the helicopter sound coalesced into 3 Blackhawk helicopters flying in a close triangle formation just over the top of the jersey barriers, and fast! As fast as I saw them they were flying directly over my gaurd tower missing it by inches and only 3' over my head. They made a straight line to the oasis. Getting there they all turned nose toward the oasis then tipped nose down and started firing what sounded like 50 cals. I didn't see door gunners, the weapons were mounted to the craft. They fired for solid 40 seconds, seemed unending to me but I'm very certain whoever was in that oasis was paste. After they stopped firing they hovered for about 15 seconds then triangle formation right back over my guard tower to where they came from. I threw them a salute and send thanks because they very may well have saved me and my fellow military members from death or a world of hurt. I've never been in helicopter that I didn't toss chunks in (motion sickness) but I appreciate them and still find them magical.

Coast Guard does more active duty missions than all the other services combined, and we use a variant of the Blackhawk. Love your videos!

Engineering grunt: Hovering death D.O.D: I'm listening...

Another epic episode!

During Vietnam, they tried to make the CH-47 Chinook a gunship called the Guns a Go Go Program.

I think the UH-1 might want to have a word with you. Troop transport? Check. Gunship variant? Check. Medevac? Check. Been in service since Vietnam, and still serves worldwide? Check. Civilian variants (Bell 212 and 214) doing everything from firefighting to tourist flights to air ambulance? Check.

You gotta do a video on the CH-53, the Blackhawks bigger older brother. It makes the Chinook look small, especially with the new Kilo variant. Worked on them for years when I was in the Marines.

"...there's a Blackhawk for that." Love that.

As a 15T10 mechanic and crew chief for this bird: I love Blackhawks! (If you know, you know)

50 Blackhawks on screen. Someone, somewhere, played Ride of the Valkyries, apocalypse now, beyond me.

I’m always in awe whenever I see one fly over. They are so cool watching them fly over. By far my favorite helicopter, I had to put them in my books.

The only drawback with the Blackhawk comes from the Medevac side. Due to the design of the avionics, you are unable to shock a soldier’s heart if they go into cardiac arrest. If you do so, the joules of electricity that the AED delivers to the patient will also short out the avionics, turning the Blackhawk into a flying brick.

"There gonna reach you about your cars extended warranty" had me rebreaking my rib laughing so hard lol 😂

The moment where you got side-tracked taking a shit on the whole rest of the planet for NOT doing things made me giggle a lot more than I care to admit 🤣

I think the Black Hawk is an incredible helicopter and has served our country well, but I am not sure it is more iconic than the Huey. Maybe its just that I am a little older and have seen the Huey a lot. Between the Black Hawk, Huey, and Chinook, the US military have had 3 outstanding helicopters that have saved many lives over their decades of service.

It's also one of the few Helios capable of stealth operations using Low-observation Technology, "silent" drive rotors, reduced radar cross sections, etc.

As for most Iconic that would be a tough fight between the OG UH-1 Iroquois "Huey" and the UH-60 Blackhawk "Catfish". The Blackhawk had some big shoes to fill when it was introduced and has done a good job performing the job the Iroquois pioneered. While the Blackhawk has superior capabilities the Huey is still in service with the USMC in the form of the UH-1Y Venom over 70 years after it's introduction in 1960 proving it's longevity and value to the US Military. My personal opinion it the title of most Iconic goes to the Huey.

So I have a friend who attended the decommissioning ceremony of the Blackhawk in Australia. Immediately afterwards he was tasked to attend the recommissioning ceremony of the Blackhawk. Now when I say immediately, I'm worried you may think a day, a week or a month later. No, it was done the same day. He had had just enough time to hand in his gat and start removing his uniform before they sent them back to the armoury. The ADF couldn't go five minutes without the Blackhawk.

In 2008 I was escorting a 2 star to a meeting in the Green Zone. The pilot came over the LZ and did a 90* turn leaving me staring directly down at the ground from about 200' hoping I'd latched the seatbelt properly.

Very versatile because I have helped build some. I have physically touched every army helicopter except the Comanche but I have worked on the Huey. Plus I have worked on the beast MH-53E sea dragon.

that is one bird you never forget the sound of... because it means your ride has shown up, and he probably brought friends

My favorite variant was the old-school alpha models that turned themselves into high-velocity lawn darts when you used the wrong radio.

Dude it’s so great to see how your channel has evolved I’m in rotc and my dad is a retired warrant officer and him and I both love your videos please continue to make everyone smile with your videos

I thought he said black cawk for a minute

I remember in the 80's when the Army got them and they were dropping out of the sky when they flew by 'Kansas Tower' on our base (MCAS Kaneohe).

Once again your production value keeps rising. Had friends at the country club sharing your videos back and forth! Your going to be successful as hell!

Thank you for doing this one, my nephew is a pilot for searching rescue in that beast. . love it.

I absolutely love the Blackhawk. One of if not the best aircraft ever made.

I love the videos but I can’t help but think of the Huey instantly every time a helicopter is brought up Lol, I’d say it’s the most iconic and the sound of the rotors is the most iconic helicopter sound ever lol

1:48 was a perfect time to circle out the Apache up there. The Black hawks bring cool friends.

Worked on Pave Hawks for 10 years of my career. Best mission, best aircraft I've ever worked.

I worked on one of the Navy's variants, the SH-60B, as an AO. Our version was used for hunting submarines and could carry torpedos, the penguin antiship missile, or hellfire missiles. The door gun was either an m60, m240, gau-16 or gau-21

Got to hitch a ride on both a Black Hawk and a Huey back in the day. The UH-60 felt just like riding in a small plane, even when the pilot tried to liven things up through a hilly area. The UH-1 felt like riding in a helicopter, blaring Wagner over loudspeakers and blasting a bunch of VC and their water buffaloes. Black Hawk had nice padded seats with harnesses to hold you in that required a degree in mechanical engineering to lock into place, Huey had diamond plate flooring for your pack to slide around on while the pilots got the "flying 10 feet off the ground through a desert wadi" out of their systems. The Black Hawk sounded like a whiny spinny bird. The Huey sounded like Victory.

I love how the DAP is basically the love child of the Blackhawk, Apache, and Huey. Hellfires and rocket pods on a Blackhawk frame? Sure, why not. But let’s add the Huey’s swivel guns just for kicks 😂

"Do you want to take a scenic tour through Mogadishu? There's a Black Hawk for that!"

I have been waiting for you to do this!!! As a former Blackhawk crew chief I approve. You can actually fit 12 grunts in them if the jump seat is installed. I’m surprised you didn’t touch on medevac and their use of the jungle penetrator…haha penetrator.

While there's no doubting the history, abilities and versatility of the Blackhawk and its many variants, it'll never be the "most iconic helicopter" to me. I grew up watching the Vietnam War, with the daily "kill ratios" and stories of atrocities from both sides in the headlines and the nightly news... The Huey is the most iconic chopper to me. I grew up watching it doing yeoman work in the Nam before "The Green Berets" was filmed.

My airframe for six years. Spent so much time crawling around in these things I feel like I should’ve bought it dinner first.

I love your videos. I was never aloud to join the army due to a bad set of hips. I believe it is due to my dad being in Vietnam and dealing with agent orange. I would love to have been able to serve our great country. Thank you and all service men and women I can never thank everyone who has served enough especially those who lost their lives. My dad is a sharp shooting 12 bravo grunt.

FINALLY! The Blackhawk is my absolute favorite beast to ever roam the skies! I just wish this vid was longer! Do another vid with all the other variants!

"- there is no helicopter that excels at doing both." Bell H-1 Huey has entered the chat.

The only thing you left out was the mating call of the Blackhawk Crewchief: "I fly with my aircraft". It doesn't actually result in mating, having roughly the same effect of telling a girl about your latest D&D character, but you'll never convince them of that.

The Huey may not beat the Blackhawk but it holds a place in my heart.

I was with The 101st during OEF. My squad followed around S.O.A.R. and set up foward area refueling points for their missions. There is something mind-numbing about watching them come over a mountain like the worst mosquito infestation on planet earth.

I love these birds. My dad works at one of the Sikorsky plants up in CT and he works what they call "top deck" working on and assembling the rotor and its mount

And now the army has decided to replace it with the osprey. I'm sure that is gonna go swimmingly well.

Also not mentioned it has great firefighting capability. Predominantly on the home front where wildfires are big like in CA my sister unit in WV sent support to the last CA wildfire. I've been waiting for a Blackhawk video by you. As a 60 CE rearview/Sideview mirror with a machine gun I approve this messgae

Seeing this coming your way is either the best or worst feeling of your life.

I have been a crew chief on the first 2 Blackhawks in this video. That's crazy AF to see!

I can tell you when Dustoff came in with their Blackhawks they sounded like angels.

It's awesome that you still reply to people. Hell I think I've only had a few you didn't.

As a 15T, I greatly appreciate this video. Well done!

This is my favorite video yet as a former mech on these aircraft. When we worked with the seals they called it deaths Uber. We had morale patches with that name until the someone higher up didn't like it and the patches were no longer to be sold or handed out...

I like how the Huey underwent a fucked up mitosis and spawned the Little Bird and Blackhawk.

Also, looking forward to #100! Could we maybe get a personal story about your service?

I'm equally as excited about the new Sikorsky-Boeing Defiant helicopter. While it's still in development, it looks to be a worthy successor to the adaptability of the Blackhawk. Edit: well now I have egg on my face. They decided to go with the mini osprey instead.

Light Infantry @ Ft. Ord back in the day an this was our combat limo to ever dance. We played in Panama and may have investigated happenings in Columbia via Black Hawk for most of 89 and 90 and our pilots had a sick sense of humor. Miss that bird.

As a Child of a former night stalkers pilot, yes, the Blackhawk is like the big brother of the extremely angry finch(because it’s a little bird), also known as the killer egg

Not the extended warranty! The Tat Electrician scores another hit!

While I loaded cargo planes in the two largest airlifts in world history, my brother started out as 88M back in '92. Somewhere around 2008 he got his Warrant and went on to fly UH60s. Two tours in Afghanistan, and finished out his 24 years as an instructor at Rucker. When the Blackhawk carrying some members of Congress was forced down on a mountain in Afghan land, my brother was flying the cover gunship and ended up sitting on the mountain for a good long time until the weather cleared. My brother is one of those high speed low drag types, whereas I am more of a BFI institute of Technology instructor (Brute Force and Ignorance) where our motto is 'get a bigger hammer.'

Love that list of inventions at the start that the US invented literally none of, it had the feel of that bush quote about the French having no word for entrepreneur

The Blackhawk has a cousin called the Seahawk. It's basically the Blackhawk except it folds into a pretzel.

I swear to God, this channel has made me feel more American than I already am. Like, this channel makes me feel INTENSELY American.

The black Hawk has a variety for every state

As a former Coastal Alaskan, my favorite was the Jayhawk, the Coast Guard variant. Everyone hated the coasties until the fecal mater was forcefully drawn into the highspeed rotating air mover...

Only thing that a military manufacturer needs is 1. A good product 2. An Fat Electrician advertisement video