Our Huey HH-1K Helicopter

What do you do with the shell of a decommissioned helicopter?

helicopter playground — Turn it into a playground!

Obviously! Who wouldn’t, right?

How on earth did we end up with a Vietnam era Huey helicopter?!

Back in 2014, a family friend and aeronautical engineer needed to dispose of a parted out helicopter shell. Since we’re in the junkyard business and have tow vehicles, we’d previously helped him get rid of other metal (including a small airplane!)

Suddenly, inspiration struck. We were expecting our first child, and naturally our minds were focused on kid related things. We asked if we could keep the shell, and turn it into a one of a kind playground. The helicopter arrived at our house one week after our infant daughter.

Follow along to see our Huey’s journey from scrap heap to playground!

Coming Home

The Details

Our research has led us to discover that our helicopter is a Bell Huey HH-1K Iroquois. This model was a purpose built SAR (search and rescue) variant of the Model 204. The US Navy ordered a limited number of them in 1970, fitted with special avionics and equipment.

Our Huey is 1 of only 27 of these!

HH-1K was sometimes known as a “slick,” meaning it didn’t have guns. Some were used to transport cargo and personnel. The 1K’s could have a rescue hoist too. Given the production year of our Huey, we think it’s unlikely it ever saw duty during the Vietnam war.

From the records we’ve found, it looks like our Huey did a cold winter exercise in Norway, and had an assignment at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in Ridgecrest, CA. At some point, it was transferred to AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, often called The Boneyard). That’s a US Air Force aircraft and maintenance facility in Tucson, AZ.

After that, it passed into civilian ownership at Northwest Helicopters in Olympia, WA. It was “cancelled” in 2004, being listed as destroyed. We aren’t sure what happened after that, but our friend had it for years before ultimately sending it to the scrapyard (then we intercepted it!)