Just days after then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan made his famous “Tear down this wall!” speech in West Berlin in June of 1987, German photographer Manfred Faber took a picture of a uniquely modified helicopter wearing an unassuming civilian paint job and carrying a U.S. civil registration code at Frankfurt Airport. Documents we have obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, along with information from other sources, point to this particular Hughes Little Bird being a part of one of the U.S. military's most top-secret aviation units ever, formally called the 1st Rotary Wing Test Activity, but better known as Seaspray. We reached out to Mr. Faber, who was gracious enough to let us use his photograph for this story. You can find more of his work here. Unfortunately, he had no additional information on the helicopter, which had the registration N1111U at the time, or why it might have been in Frankfurt.

Per information we obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the aircraft started life as a Hughes Model 369D, the manufacturer's name for the OH-6D helicopter. This was an improved version of the Vietnam War-era OH-6A Cayuse light scout helicopter. The most obvious external improvements were the addition of a new five-blade main rotor in place of the original four-blade design and new T-shaped tail assembly. It also featured an improved Allison turboshaft engine. The resulting variant was significantly faster and more powerful than its predecessors. N1111U clearly took advantage of that additional capability to carry a variety of cutting edge equipment, turning it into something of a real-life analog to the fictional helicopter in the television show Airwolf.

Manfred Faber N1111U, a highly modified Hughes 369D.

A night-flying, covert transport Under the nose, N1111U has what appears to be a Hughes AN/AAQ-16 forward-looking infrared (FLIR) turret, which can capture infrared full motion video during the day and night and in most any weather conditions. After acquiring the rights to the design, Raytheon Systems Company continued producing versions of this system into the 1990s and it was a standard feature on early U.S. Army special operations MH-47 Chinooks and MH-60 Black Hawks, as well as U.S. Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters. The helicopter also has a plank on the side that special operators could ride on, which also doubles as an extended range fuel tank. A center spar running through the small rear cabin would connect this assembly to another plank on the opposite side of the aircraft. There are also three large blade antennas under the nose, which are typically associated with high-frequency radios and other communications systems. A round “cake pan” antenna on the helicopter’s boom is indicative of an early satellite communications system or satellite navigation system. There are also missile approach warning detectors on the nose. These are typically found on aircraft meant to fly into or through contested airspace. There may be additional internal components, including in the exhaust system, to dampen the aircraft's infrared signature to help protect it from short-range heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles, but the area where a side-mounted infrared-dampening exhaust port would be is blanked off on this aircraft. There are various other less obvious specialized features on N1111U, including “slime lights” and a small infrared light on the tail for night formation flying. The helicopter also has the mounting points above the rear door for the Fast Rope Insertion Extraction System, or FRIES, which would allow individuals on the planks to quickly rappel into an area if the helicopter could not find a suitable landing spot.

US Army An MH-6 Little Bird from the US Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment carries special operators on side-mounted planks and has the FRIES equipment installed to allow them to rappel down once the helicopter reaches its objective. In 1987, N1111U was configured for similar operations.