Huey Gets a Facelift

• Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center
• Huey
• helicopter
• Iroquois

Graduate students participated in repainting the UH-1H.

The graduate students of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center recently revitalized the center's helicopter on campus for Maryland Day 2009. First used by the US military in 1959, the Huey (also known as the "Iroquois") has become one of the most widely used helicopters in the world. The most popular Huey variant, the UH-1H, was donated to the University of Maryland Aerospace Engineering Department by the Maryland National Guard in 1998. Students have painted the helicopter three times since then and the most recent design was finished in April 2009. Although this helicopter is no longer operational, it serves two valuable roles: first, as a learning tool for the students of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center; and second, as an inspiring example of the incredible machines that engineering students being trained at UMD today will be designing and building tomorrow.

Photos and article submitted by Nick Wilson and Brandon Bush

Published May 6, 2009