Huey Chair

With help from the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association we have the full history of the Huey gunship that the chair is from – it flew in Vietnam with several AHC.

As the seat is collapsible and was mounted on the floor of the cabin – I acquired a section of Huey floor from Maine and had a friend ship it across. It arrived today. 

The chair is from a model 204 and the floor panel is from a model 205 but the spacings for the leg are the same and it fits well and securely. It is released by pressing a wire in and pulling the collars on the legs up. 

There has been some discussion as to whether red seats were used in Vietnam – but a search through my reference books shows at least ten that I can see – so probably many more but obviously not as common as green seats. As the seat was acquired in Washington in late 72 from a junk shop it was either brought back from Vietnam or swapped when the aircraft was transferred into the National Guard.

The Wasp chair cushions are off at the upholsterer as the vinyl tape holding them together was not really good enough..

Interestingly The real Huey chair arrived today and whilst cleaning we came across the serial number 64-14132 a UH-1C re engined as a UH-1M and assigned to the US Army.

Ah yes! 🙂  That reminds me of a local archaeologist who took weeks to try and work out what a hit on his ground scan was. one evening he excitedly rang the land owner saying it was a wind mill! After a pause the farmer went “Ah! that explains why the roads called Mill lane.”  

The serial number XT617 on the bottom may have made the ident process quicker.

Thank you. The Wasp chair is due to arrive today and the Huey chair is also nearly here.

In an other auction last week I acquired several other parts including a Skeeter door and whilst looking at Skeeters I noticed chair design was similar. Extending thoughts to other late 40’s helicopters resulted in identification.

Nice bit of digging 🙂 

The Huey chair for sale at the auction is a Westland Scout chair.

Similar but not the same as the SARO Skeeter chair.

Surprisingly the Westland Wasp had a different chair – different back design.