Iran Military Forum

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I found this really cool photo of the bell 409 It would be awesome if Iran made a large attack helicopter like this

Same here..

The Bell 409, better known as the YAH-63, was the competitor of the Huges YAH-64 Apache. The YAH-63 was considerably faster than the Apache prototype but used what was considered an inferior rotor design (two blades instead of four) and other issues. The US Army went with the Apache of course, but the YAH-64 did aid the development of later variants of the AH-1 Cobra included the AH-1W and AH-1Z. The main contribution was the use of the T700 engine over the original PT6 TwinPac engine used on the AH-1J/T. This is also the same engine used by UH-60 Blackhawks and the Bell 214ST (an image of a partially completed helicopter has been seen in Iran with what appears to be a T700 engine mounted to it!).

That was considered as a possibility since the aircraft was not produced in large numbers.

So either the aircraft is a completely rebuilt helicopter captured from Iraq, or obtained from another source, nor built it from scratch themselves. The later option is a possibility since the Bell 214ST model was designed and meant to be produced in Iran but because of the Revolution the first flight occured in the US not Iran. Considering the level of cooperation in the project it is quite feasible the blueprints were found in Iran somewhere.

However I do favor the idea of it being captured from Iraq though I have never seen any reports of that particular helicopter coming into Iranian hands but who knows.

Also, the TV3 engine doesn't necessarily mean the attack helicopter would be large. Remember, the Mi-28 uses those engines and its no bigger than the AH-64.

it looks wicked in my opinion...