Boeing Vertol YUH-61

The Boeing Vertol YUH-61, company Model 179, was a twin turbine-engined, medium-lift military assault and utility helicopter. It was the runner-up in the US Army Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System competition of the early 1970s to replace the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, and Sikorsky's UH-60A won the contract at the end of the flyoff. Under a contract awarded in August 1972 Boeing Vertol designed and delivered three prototypes. Its design stressed reliability, survivability and low life-cycle cost, with dual engines, run-dry gearboxes, crashworthy armored seats and a ballistically tolerant structure, a rigid main rotor based on technology from MBB, tricycle landing gear and a pusher tail rotor. After the Army loss, its civil orders and the Navy LAMPS III hope also fell through, and a proposed attack helicopter version did not reach the Advanced Attack Helicopter downselect.