Catching a Hughes Helicopter

As I was waiting for the next ship, I heard a pretty distinctive sound.

 It turns out that it was a helicopter.

 Turns out that it was a Hughes OH-6.  The OH-6 was developed as the Model 369 to answer a request by the Army for Light Observation Helicopter.  Initially it was beat out by designs by Bell and Fairchild-Hiller but the Army decided to include it as a finalist.

 The Model 369 first flew in 1963 and went up against the Bell and Fairchild-Hiller designs at Fort Rucker.  It was determined that the Bell design was underpowered.  The Hughes helicopter ended up winning but they were accused of shenanigans.  That was because Howard Hughes underpriced the helicopter and ended up losing money.  This caused a second competition to open up and a new Bell model ended up winning.

As it was, the Army still ended up using the helicopter.  It was also used by the Japanese, Spanish, Taiwanese, Danes and few other.  It also found it's way to police use.