5 More of the Worst Helicopters Ever | History in the Dark

Helicopters are complicated beasts. As it turns out, there's more than five occasions where they turned out kind of terrible. Let's talk about some more!

0:00 - Intro
1:01 - Eurocopter Tiger ARH
6:53 - Westland 30
10:30 - Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave
13:43 - Agusta A.106
15:27 - Hughes XH-17

"The Tiger ARH (Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter) is the version ordered by the Australian Army to replace its OH-58 Kiowas and UH-1 Iroquois-based 'Bushranger' gunships. The Tiger ARH is a modified and upgraded version of the Tiger HAP with upgraded MTR390 engines as well as a laser designator incorporated in the Strix sight for the firing of Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles. Instead of SNEB unguided rockets, the ARH will use 70 mm (2.75 in) rockets from Belgian developer, Forges de Zeebrugge (FZ). Twenty-two of the variant were ordered in December 2001. Most of the helicopters will be operated by the 1st Aviation Regiment based at Robertson Barracks in Darwin. The helicopter was shipped to Australia in part form and locally assembled at Brisbane Airport by Australia Aerospace."

"The Westland 30 is a medium-sized civil helicopter designed and produced by the British aerospace company Westland Helicopters. It was derived from the Westland Lynx series of military helicopters, with which it retains a high level of commonality."

"The Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave (company designation S-56) is an American large heavy-lift helicopter of the 1950s."

"The Agusta A.106 was a single-seat light helicopter designed to provide an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform for the Impavido-class destroyers of the Italian Navy. The aircraft was provided with a sophisticated electronics suite by Ferranti for autostabilisation and contact identification. Two torpedoes could be slung under the fuselage. The tail and two-bladed main rotor could be folded for shipboard stowage, and the skid undercarriage had fittings for flotation bags."

"The Hughes XH-17 "Flying Crane" was the first helicopter project for the helicopter division of Hughes Aircraft Company. The XH-17, which had a two-bladed main rotor system with a diameter of 134 feet (41 m), still holds the world record for flying with the largest rotor system. It was capable of flying at a gross weight of more than 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg), but proved too inefficient and cumbersome to be mass-produced beyond the prototype unit."

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[kurtpena]

Darkness: "Australia was still using the UH-1 in 2009..."
USMC: "Hold my beer..."

[Daisysdomain]

The sad thing about this Tiger is that it's place in history is going to be the helicopter that is stolen and then blown up in the James Bond film Goldeneye.
An idea for a list. Amazing military aircraft that are seriously underrated.
The Fairly Gannett has got to be on the list.
One of them was intercepted, I believe during red flag exercises or something similar, by the US navy and when the pilot was asked what the radar contact was, he looked over at the Gannett and saw the pilot, not touching the controls but reading a book and reported back something like " I don't know what it is, but the pilot must be God."

[generalspitfire]

That is true.... But there is a Reason why the Tiger is called a *"Eurocopter"*

[RandomTrinidadian]

Its not that the Tiger is bad, its just that it has better alternitives.

Also... every other country that has been offered the Tiger, ended up buying Apaches. Its even said the Germans are also looking into buying Apaches to replace their Tigers.

[alanrogers]

Yes, the CH-47 Mojave did have problems, in its time. As mentioned, there were no turboshaft engines available at that time, but here's a what if. What if it had its engines replaced by turboshafts? Of course, by the time these newer engines were available, newer, better helicopter designs were taking advantage of them.
The engines that came with the CH-47, , by the way, are the same as those used by many WWII aircraft, including, P-47 Thunderbolts, F6F Hellcats, F4U Corsairs, and the B-29 Superfortress bombers.

[mitchellsmith]

We still have UH-1 series in service, and AH-1s as well.

[sebforce]

I'm curious to see what the Apache's would be looking like in the ADF, like, will we do what the US does and use that dark olive colour? Or will we do what we usually do and paint it in AUSCam? _Because, though I may be biased, many vehicles look good in AUSCam..._

[Freesavh]

Man the F22 is 1 very sexy aircraft.
Ahhh yeah Howard Hughes. The Tony Stark of the mid 1900's.

[calvingreene]

The big problem with the Sikorsky CH-37 Mohave is that it was the backup plan for in case the turbines didn't work in helicopters and a development prototype for multi engine helicopters. Turbines do working helicopters and much improvement in harnessing two engines together was made so it was pretty much instantly obsolete. A poor country might have simply reengined them with a single 4200hp engine but America.

[RahulSingh-tfbh]

The XH-17: Giant main rotor with loud tipjets, and a mutation of other aircraft.
That's was totally full on 😂

[ethribin]

The Agusta looks like it was meant to be cheap, simple to use and easy to produce.
Which has a place in military.
But its a niche one. A "we dont have good enigneers/factories to build anything with.

Its kinda the 'tank built in tractorfactory' type.

[RahulSingh-tfbh]

The way the narrator explains why the Augusta one is terrible just get me 😂

[troygroomes]

the us marine Corp still uses UH-1 & AH-1's

[MrCateagle]

Augusta A106 reminds me of the USNavy"s DASH drone.

[steveemm]

The concept of the flying crane later evolved into a pretty good heavy lift helicopter, and a flying crane helicopter is still in use worldwide

[carlossaraiva]

The last helicopter could had great potential to be a legit skycrane. I think it's problem as reported in this video, is that if suffered a peculiar case of being both overengineered and underengineered.

[Marc_von_Hoffrichter]

If you've ever been in a tight corner, you're not going to wish for a Tiger to come bail you out. Not fit for purpose. The Collins class submarine of the sky.

[MrCateagle]

Experience with the CH-37 gave Sikorsky the experience that produced the CH-53.

[fazbear]

The Agusta just looks like the Borzoi of helicopters lmao

[KouuToriProductions]

Do you have any requests for top five worst/best semi trucks ever? If not, I am suggesting it.