Bell:"We're making America's first jet fighter." Lockheed:"We're making America's first good jet fighter." Bell: We're making America's first attack helicopter." Lockheed:"We're making America's first good attack helicopter." Bell:" ....Listen here you little shit!"

Bell was building a current generation attack chopper, while Lockheed was already working on the future of attack helicopter. They could have coexisted.

McNamara, his impact, cancelling programs he wasn’t invested in, is legendary

The moment I saw that rotating gunnery chair my mind immediately went to "Greetings, Starfighter..."

Behold, the reason Lockheed never built another helicopter 😂 Edit: I didn’t know Lockheed acquired Sikorsky

Seeing how much the Cobra have changed from it's original design, makes me wonder how the Cheyenne would look today.

I built a Cheyenne model as a youngin' back in 1972 - was crushed to learn the project was cancelled. Amusing that in 1986 I became a Naval Aircrewman - and later did the Maverick missile tests for the Seahawk helicopter.

It was the US Air Force that primarily put a stop to the Cheyenne attack helicopter. The Air Force wanted the skies all to themselves.

A big part about the cheyenne, was not only the push prop and actual functioning wings, but the special stsbilized rotor blade system. It didnt use a traditional swash plate, it used a system similar to what toy helicopters actually use, with a stabilizing bar on top for a inherently stabilized system gyroscopically.

Minor correction: AH-64 was started by Hughes. Which was bought by McDonnell Douglas 1984. Which was bought by Boeing 1997.

The AH-64 upgrade that is coming actually brings most of the AH-56 designs to it, minus the belly turret. The reasons for the AH-56 cancellation are superfluous at best.

Don't you love when someone change the requirements without giving notive to the other but by some dark way, the opponent knew what would change

this helicopter is awsome! sad thath it got cancelled. one of my favorite helicopter.

Lockheed didn't need to build helo's anymore, as with the Griada treaty Skunk works got anti-gravitic technology in 1954.

I saw this copter, not knowing what it was, at Ft Rucker in 2005; impressive, rigid main rotor and pusher prop. By the time it was debuged, I understand it had state of the art avionics and control systems, as well as devastating firepower. Very cool.

Ive seen concepts for a boeing ah64 upgrade package that would turn it into a cheyenne more or less. With bigger wings, and a pusher propeller.

Nobody seems to have mentioned one of the best reasons for going with the AH-1. It has about 40% parts interchangeability with the UH-1. Really streamlines logistics.

Having 130 successful missile tests and then your first display test failing is like something out of a movie. I like to imagine a bell employee snuck in and cut a wire.

Lesson learned time-to-time. "There is nothing more permanent, than a temporary solution".

McNamara probably saw the Huey Cobra as his Ford Falcon being turned in the Mustang, all-over again...!😄

I love watching the release live!

The idea that any single weapon system could win the Vietnam War, is to misunderstand the conflict completely.

Saw one at Ft. Rucker museum in ft Rucker, Alabama

I love your enthusiasm, it encourages my own fascination and wonder.

I've always wondered why the canopie was so large. It has to be 3 feet higher than the gunners head! I bet he could have stood up and not needed to open it.

Thank you,gratefully, for covering this wonderful helicopter.

One of my personal favorite helicopters (mostly by design) is the Yak-60. Looks like a Chinook, just bigger, though I think the Mil V-12 has it beat in weight.

Built the Aurora model kit of this back in the early '70s. Soon after building it...I found the Cheyenne project was canceled. (Cue sad trombone...)

This premiere was awesome! You earned ur self a sub 👍

When I was a undergraduate in mechanical engineering, my professor in my mechanical vibrations class (1979) said this helicopter had vibration problems that could not be corrected. Thus it was cancelled.

"First attack helicopter" The AH-1 litrally flying the same year

This thing was always 50 years ahead of its time. The Army dropped the ball by cancelling it.

Can you make a video about the new biggest plane in the world concept built to carry wind turbine blade, the Radia WindRunner?

One is on display at Ft Polk, Louisiana...I was stationed there from 97-02

You didn't do your due diligence when researching this chopper. The US Air Force exerted a lot of influence to the powers that be to cancel this program since it would take away funds from their Close Air Support program. They argued that since it had functioning wings, the US Army should not be allowed to operate it since fixed wing aircraft are the Air Forces' domain. It's petty and silly but that's how the Air Force operated during the 60's and 70's. Also, it was Hughes Helicopters who produced and won the contract for the original AH-64 Apache until they were acquired by McDonnell Douglas in the early 80's and then MD merged with Boeing in the late 90's.

🤔 The AH 56 Cheyenne reminds me a bit of the A-10 Thunderbolt II 🤔

Just sad that it was cancelled.

the Bell UH-1D Huey multi mission helo gunship could have done with a twin-engined arrangement . . . for e.g. the 1,623 shp (1,283 kW) General Electric T700-GE-401 turboshaft engines . . . and a 4-blade main rotor instead of the typical 2-blade type . . . the ship borne Bell UH-1Y Venom maritime multi mission helo gunship is a heavily upgraded variant of the good old UH-1D & UH-1H . . .

The rotating CPG station would get you super sick lol

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley not all that far from the original Lockheed Skunk Works in Burbank. Back in the 1960s the sound track of the San Fernando Valley was sonic booms from jets screaming overhead and the roar of Clay Lacy's purple P-51 "Miss Omni" pylon racer making hot laps of the Valley from its home at Van Nuys Airport. Oh, and the sound of prototypes of the Cheyenne. One of them would fly over our elementary school right at recess time every day like clockwork, and I always noticed. One day I will never forget it pulled a loop right over our school. Even as a 4th grader I "knew" helicopters weren't supposed to pull loops but there it was right before my eyes. One nice clean loop on the way north probably to some test range out by Edwards Air Force Base. What a thrill for a little kid who would as an adult go on to fly helicopters, though nothing that hot.

The development of turboshaft engines was what took helicopters to the next level. The earlier use of piston powered craft was their limiting factor originally.

You forgot to mention that the Air Force was exerting HUGE pressure that this was THEIR domain under the Key West Agreement. The Army was effectively barred from creating a fast helicopter again which is one reason the Apache is so slow.

Seen one of these things on static display at Ft Rucker. Cool as hell, too bad they couldn't have been put into production

Amazing video!

Can you make a video about the secret weapons of the Luftwaffe. Like the Fritz X , Hs 293, X4, V1, and V2, etc...

Great mini documentary 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Swear first time I saw this helicopter it looked hella cool

how badass this was... to have a rotating gunner seat for an attack helicopter

I can understand the Army needing a combat helicopter right away thanks to the Vietnam war, but I agree that the Cheyenne should have gone to production and started on the upgrade cycle. It seems more viable as an anti-tank helicopter for Europe; especially if the Soviets felt a yearning to come west.

Does anyone notice the nose and canopy is nearly spot on with an OV-10 Bronco?

Have you got more information on the attack plane based on the Ah-56?

It looks a lot like that dragonfly aircraft

WHAT I THINK IS THAT THIS HELICOPTER SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUILT, BUT POLITICS AS USUAL, GOT IN THE WAY.

Bell: I ain't taking this humiliation! *makes a helicopter that would be quicker to make* . Lockheed: *surprised pikachu*

please do the 1910 coanda, its the first "jet" biplane that was created before ww1. Would be interesting to do a what if it was successful and managed to be developed during the war.

Obsessed with landing everywhere

hey, i love your videos for years now! there is one plane i'd like you to look into: the MBB Lampyridae, germany's stealth fighter from the 80's that wasn't to be... would love to see it coming to life with your great renders ;-)

I saw one of these AH=56 helicopters in the local on post museum at what used to be called Ft Polk, LA, back in the mid 80's. I was serving in the US Army as an LT and recognized it what it was. May have been an example being tested at this post when the program was cancelled in 1972.. Perhaps its still there slowly turning to dust.

Beautiful Graphics

I think you missed the real problem. The Cheyenne was designed to attack from relatively high altitude in a fast steep dive, then pulling up to high altitude. This would have been safe in Vietnam as the main threat to helicopters was AA guns, which couldn't easily hit at the altitudes they'd have cruised at. Then, the Soviets brought out the SA-7 which would have decimated helicopters at altitude. The only way to avoid the SA-7 would have been going even higher (not feasible for helicopters) or lower, which would have made the high speed less useful as a defence. The Cobra was actually introduced into combat while the Cheyenne was in test.

Can you do a video on Indian military equipments like LCH Prachand or INS Vikranth

The Blackburn Beverly needs some found and explained love

I feel like the program was sort of revived in the sense that it's idea was, ish, i think the V-22 Osprey can revive the idea if they made an attack helicopter variant

Our government always does this for example the F-16 XL and the XF-23... Even now they have the Abrams-X in testing but I bet it never goes into production.

amazing helicopter video

Can you try and see if there’s any Canadian jets I would like to hear about more if there’s any prototypes or something

I recalled reading from a non-fiction Tom Clancy book which mentioned about the AH-56 and one of the issues which led to its cancellation. That was the growing sophistication and capability of Soviet AA defences such as the ZSU-23-4 Shilka and shoulder-launched SAMs (and vehicle-mounted variants of said SAM system). One of the key features of the AH-56 was diving attacks which required it to fly into the teeth of Soviet-designed mobile AA defences. In contrast, the AH-1 and others like it were meant for stalking and shoot-&-scoot tactics by hiding behind obstacles. And I think the AH-1 kept being updated even now.

Many years ago there was one on display. Walking around the helicopter it was unbelievable how that they were rejected. Then many years later there was a program about it. It was loaded with errors and overruns that killed the program.

no mention of piece price, or operating cost...

what website do you use to make the AI videos??

The cancellation of the Cheyenne is just another reason why the USAF was a mistake.

3:10 - the tail propeller is working backwards xD

Dude i swear some american tech that looks "Futuristic" are literally old as heck!

Defiant X looks very similar to the AH-56 Cheyenne and it also got canceled! Bell helicopter 🚁 wins again! Makes you wonder 🤔

Very epic video

More lockweed content please

One thing not mentioned is that the USAF also fought against the pusher-prop design, claiming that it was entering the speed domains "reserved" for the USAF's exclusive use, and lobbied hard to get the Cheyanne killed. Heck, they also complained that the long wings and speed made it an airplane in disguise. The biggest irony though is that in recent years, the US military as a whole realized the need for a faster helicopter, and pusher-prop designs like this were submitted by several groups, including again, Lockheed-Sikorsky. But alas, it just doesn't seem meant to be, between losing the Blackhawk Replacement program (Lockheed's Defiant X) to Bell (V-280 Valor, although it was a fair loss, as the Defiant X was behind schedule), and the light-attack/scout helicopter replacement program being cancelled, which had the Defiant X as a Huey-like successor and Bell's Invictus being a spiritual Commanche/Cheyanne descendant (there's a certain irony in how the designs are reversed; Lockheed making a Huey-style design, while Bell made a Cheyanne-style design).

IMO it would've been better if there were 2 project running side by side, a low attack heli and a high attack heli that is intended to work side by side

Also the Air Force was a little pissy that this helo was stepping on their toes matching performance of a fixed wing which would be against Army doctrine

i could see the civilised Version a self seller to small Island Nations in the caribbean and other places where still today fly twin otters and alikes... also i guess with more flight hours and experiences we would be closer to the flying car future than we are today... the military one, for Vietnam it was too late, but like you said, it would be constantly upgraded like Chinooks and other military equipment so i guess you are right, it would have shorten the time to the capacity we have now, but would this be the price worth, i doubt it...

Notably, the reason Soviet choppers got "targeted" (shot down in huge numbers) was because the U.S. was slipping so many Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missiles to the Mujahideen that at one point they started using them as anti-vehicle and anti-personnel missiles since they had almost as many of them as they did RPGs. When a HIND flew near a Mujahideen force, it tended to get shot at by multiple Stingers from multiple angles.

One of a principle reasons for cancellation of a project is the support of associated industries of a competitor project. This phrase is the whole history of US military projects.

Thank you for this wonderful video. The helicopter is a great invention and its primary purpose was for rescue and flying ambulance.

I was waiting to see if you'd botch who made the AH-64, and you sure as hell did. The Apache was developed by Hughes Aircraft Company before it was absorbed by McDonnel-Douglas, this was years before Boeing took over M-D.

Hey,anyone here still remember and know what happened to escape velocity?😭

The Peace Sentinel and Militaires Sans Frontières' gunship of choice

Never knew there was a pusher prop helicopter back then

McNamara was a beancounter and a bully and we all know what means...he would have made the perfect merchant banker

Why don't these platforms have a reverse 90-180° firing hardpoint?

It didn't look badass enough. The most badass looking thing always wins

"Cobra killer" ...and the Cobra moved on in life to become the Viper. The end.

Lockheed....Apple of defense industry One thing i had hear about the cancellation due to the Air Force that didnt like Army took over their job on XAS role. The cancellation would led to the birth of the A 10 Thunderbolt II.

So the gunner moved with the gun! I can see where they got the idea in Last Starfighter.

Just another example of US military's short-sighted behaviors. Another is focusing primarily on stealth and BVR capabilities and downplaying the necessity of close-range dogfighting via thrust-vectoring technology. Enough said.

I think it's time to take a look at the Republic XF-103.

20:00 It would have been in production, but it was a product of it's time. Crew survivability features are far less than the Apache.

I've heard there was some Bell Wining and Dining of Generals going on. That's how things are with projects in the Pentagon!

Always enjoy the vids. But this time... Not so much. I flew C model gunships, and was stationed at Fort Rucker when one of the Cheyenne prototypes spent some time there. There is no doubt it seemed a tech marvel at the time, but it's appearance in-country would have made little, or no difference in the outcome.

what did they call the fixed wing turbojet attack plane?

cool!