Note fixed reversed tricycle landing gear; tail wheel midway down tail cone (closer to fuselage on Seahawks); airplane-looking tail unit, tail rotor canted to starboard. The side window pattern is distinctive: two small rectangles forward, two large squares in sliding "barn door" entryway.

Thousands of Blackhawks at U.S. and overseas airborne infantry bases, hundreds more Seahawks at naval bases and aboard frigates, cruisers, and destroyers where they provide air defense radar, antisubmarine capability, and rescue service- Designed in the late seventies for carrying troops into combat, the Blackhawk and its derivatives now mount weapons, deliver mines, and provide both target aquisition and radar suppression for fixed-wing fighter-bombers. First used as the President's personal helicopter in 1989.