Ode to the Huey: The sound of a generation

Colombian Air Force · Photography

A legend from 1956

The Bell UH-1 first flew in October 1956 as the XH-40. Its early designation, HU-1, gave it the name everyone still uses: Huey. More than 16,000 were built, and in Vietnam Hueys carried up to 900,000 wounded to medical care. For many people, the beat of its two blades is the sound of a whole era.

In Colombia

The Colombian Air Force bought most of its first UH-1B and UH-1H helicopters in the early 1980s, and the family grew from there: the twin-engine Bell 212, armed as a gunship to escort air assaults, and the Huey II, a UH-1H rebuilt with a more powerful engine. In 2000 the US Congress approved 42 Huey IIs for Colombia as part of Plan Colombia.

Still flying

Decades later, they are still at work. In the 2023 to 2024 fire season, Huey IIs and Bell 212s flew next to Black Hawks with water buckets over burning hills. In 2024 a Huey II was back over the flames in Huila. Old aircraft, still answering the call.

An ode

At the Air Force helicopter school in Melgar, where Colombia’s military helicopter pilots learn their trade, the Huey is part of the family. This series is a tribute to these machines and the crews who know every sound they make: the rivets, the worn paint, the open doors, the light on the rotor at the end of the day.