The Bell Cobra helicopter gunships were airborne weapons of war during the
Vietnam conflict, but their history began before that war and production will
extend beyond the end of the century.
Bell began development of the two-place, single-engine helicopter in December
1964. By 1999, over 2,200 single and twin-engine variants were purchased by the
U.S. Army and U.S. Marines as well as Greece, Iran, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Korea,
Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey.
The museum's Cobra is a AH-1E model, O-22778, built in 1977 and last flown by
the Army's 7th Light Infantry Division stationed at Fort Ord, California. It
was donated to the museum by the U.S. Army as a Conditional Deed of Gift on
December 9, 1992. After the museum acquired the Cobra, it was restored by
volunteer craftsmen and craned over the museum wall and pedestal mounted
in the Pavillion of Flight on July 28, 1999.
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