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Tensions with the United States, which had orchestrated the Shah’s rise into power in the first place in 1953, eventually boiled over and resulted in the infamous hostage crisis, where Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a prominent Shia Islamic cleric, subsequently led a movement that took control and established the new Islamic Republic of Iran. Protests beginning in 1978 eventually evolved into an open revolt in 1979, with the Shah’s government collapsing entirely in February of that year. This agreement later expanded to include plans to build the 214ST in Iran, as well.īut while Iran did receive hundreds of 214A/Cs, it never got a single 214ST and the Iranian factory never came to be.
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The Shah and Bell had also agreed to eventually establish domestic Iranian production of the Bell 214A and C in the city of Isfahan. Iran had picked Bell’s offer over France’s Aérospatiale Puma and the British Westland Wessex, the latter being a license-produced turbine-powered derivative of the Sikorsky S-58. A small number of 214s served in the militaries of Ecuador, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, as well.īetween 19, Bell then began development of the 214ST specifically to meet Iranian requirements for an even larger, more capable military transport helicopter. The Imperial Iranian Air Force received a smaller number of 214Cs, which featured a rescue hoist and other features for use in the search and rescue mission. He subsequently signed an order for nearly 300 214A models for the Imperial Iranian Army, with production starting in 1972. With its significantly improved performance and capabilities well suited to deserts and mountainous terrain, the 214 had grabbed the eye of the Shah of Iran. It also had a one-hour run dry transmission and elastomeric rotorhead bearings for improved reliability and safety. The new helicopter was powerful enough to hover with a total weight of 12,400 pounds at sea level while running on just one engine. The stretched cabin could accommodate 20 individuals in greater comfort than the maximum of 15 people who could ride in the rear of a Twin Huey. More than 3,000 pounds heavier than the UH-1N, the 214ST had a maximum takeoff weight nearly 5,000 pounds greater than its smaller twin-engine cousin and a faster cruising speed of 140 knots. “The result is a new twin with exceptional hot-and-high capability and good single-engined performance.” “Basically, the 214ST is the 214 heavy lifter with a stretched cabin, two GE CT7-2 engines replacing the single Lycoming LC4B, a strengthened transmission passing rather more horsepower, new plastic rotor blades and Noda-Matic suspension,” Mark Lambert wrote in an article in Flight International magazine in June 1979, ahead of the first flight. It also gained an entirely recontoured upper exhaust and tail. As time went on, the design not only increased in length by 30 inches compared to the previous model, but saw significant changes to the central fuselage and nose. Two years earlier, the company had flown an experimental helicopter derived from the earlier Bell 214, which showed much more of its Huey lineage. The Bell 214ST first flew on July 21, 1979, at the company’ s Dallas-Fort Worth facility. Bell developed specifically for the Iranian military, but which never entered service in that country and has since become popular with contractors that often work for the U.S. Case in point, the Bell 214ST, with its stretched, bulged fuselage, which makes it look something like the offspring of a Huey and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. But not all of these subsequent helicopters have been as successful or become as well-known as their progenitor. More than six decades after Bell introduced the world to the very first version of its famous UH-1 Huey helicopter, variants and derivatives of this iconic design continue to serve governments and fly commercially around the world.