In June 1962, Bell invited US Army officials to the Fort Worth facility to see the mock-up of a highly innovative combat helicopter. Known at the time as the Design D-255 "Iroquois Warrior" and wearing false s/n 62-00255 (HU-1F), the new aircraft looked like an hybrid between a fighter and a helicopter. Relatively small, the "Iroquois Warrior" retained several features of the famous "Huey" and had a low silhouette, narrow profile and a small cross-section forward fuselage. This new streamlined fuselage with retractable skids had been designed for maximum speed, armament payload and crew efficiency. It featured a stepped cockpit configuration (nowadays widespread among the world's combat helicopters) with the gunner placed just in front and below the pilot. Armament included a ball-turret in the nose, a streamlined gun compartment under the fuselage and various external loads (including French SS-11 missiles and 2.75in FFAR rocket pods). Although innovative, the D-255 retained the powerplant as well as the basic transmission and rotor system of the well proven UH-1C in order to reduce maintenance and development time as well as to cut costs.
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