Didn’t see this coming, but I suppose it had to come one day: The last East Coast active duty CH-46E squadron rides into the sunset.
HMM-264’s youngest aircraft hit the fleet in September of 1970. It’s oldest in October of 1966. Between just those two aircraft, disregarding all others in the squadron, they have over 20, 660 hours flown.
Colonel Mark J. Desens, commanding officer of the 26th MEU and a CH-46 pilot since 1987, said the Marine Corps definitely got something right with the Sea Knight by continuing to maintain and upgrade the aircraft despite the fact that it was supposedly going to be replaced in the 90’s.
“They told me in flight school that I would probably only be flying the 46 for three years before the Osprey would replace it, and now here I am as the MEU commander, my 53s are taken away, and the 46, old and tired, carries the MEU,” he said.
A real piece of history; it just never quit. God bless ‘em all, and those who flew them.
“1 June 1964
Congress is investigating cost overruns in the Marines’ new combat assault helicopter. Sen. I.M. Loud noted that costs have increased 200%, and questions why the Corps cannot make do with the H3 series helo’s which are only 10 years old.
“This twin rotor system is not cost effective and will make the aircraft too big to land on our current remodeled WWII assault aircraft carriers. The lack of a cannon or an escorting platform will make it a sitting duck in a hot LZ”.
If only Al Gore had invented the internet a few years earlier, I’m sure I could have found an article from back then similar to this.
Good riddance to the old birds-they did their duty, but I won’t miss the hydraulic fluid in my lap.
I was in HMM-264 at New River in 1966 and we were flying UH-34s. I went to Nam in March of 1967 to HMM-265. We had the new CH-46A.
Quite a change. No SAS timing, but we did have the APP valve up in the aft pylon and the flight control cabinet. Phrog is a new term to me, but it does match the frontal view.
Be sorry to see it go.
You can say a lot about a CH-46, but at least it doesn’t melt the flightdeck nonskid or crack SHF dome with its exhaust!
When I was the CICO on IWO JIMA (the old one) I seem to recall that the embarked airwing had a 100nm range limitation on their CH-46s. I could be mistaken but hat memory sticks out.
BTW HMM-264′s oldest aircraft is two months older than me!!!