AH-1G Cobra
The first purpose-built attack helicopter, less than a metre wide across the cockpit.
- First dedicated gunship
- Narrow fuselage
- Two-blade rotor
- Tandem seating
Specification
- Origin
- United States
- Manufacturer
- Bell
- Role
- Attack helicopter
- Introduced
- 1967
- Combat type
- Ground, Air
- Spawn code
- ah1g
On the server
The AH-1G reached Vietnam in 1967 and was the first helicopter in the world designed from the start as a gunship rather than converted from a transport. Bell used the engine, transmission and rotor of the Huey and wrapped them in a fuselage under a metre wide, with the gunner in front and the pilot raised behind him. The narrow profile made it a hard target from the front, and the nose turret and stub wing rockets gave escorting helicopters the firepower they had been missing. On MCS the Cobra is light, quick and cheap. The two blade rotor gives it a distinctive slapping sound and a quick roll response, and its slim silhouette is genuinely difficult to hit head on. It has little armour and no modern sensors, so it fights in daylight, close in and by eye. Recommended for players who want a fast, simple gunship with history behind it.