OH-6 Cayuse Helicopter

The Army chose this helicopter on price as much as performance. In 1960 it asked for a light observation helicopter to replace the Bell H-13, and Hughes's Model 369 beat Fairchild-Hiller and Bell. It first flew on February 27, 1963. A May 1965 contract for 714 aircraft grew to 1,300, helped by a unit price of $19,860 against $29,415 for Hiller's design. Pilots said Loach from the sound of LOH. In 1966 the type set 23 world records, and after Operation Eagle Claw failed in 1980 the Army picked it again as the Little Bird for special-operations aviators.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chennault Aviation and Military Museum — steps away
  A Monroe museum that began as a 1986 reunion of Selman Field airmen and now holds Flying Tigers displays, Delta's Monroe beginnings and a park of retired aircraft.
• Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum — 2.0 mi
  A museum chartered in 1994 that tells the story of the Black pioneers of Monroe and northeast Louisiana, with local art, quilts and the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail's only Ouachita Parish stop.
• Masur Museum of Art — 3.7 mi
  A 1929 limestone Tudor house on South Grand Street, built by a Monroe lumberman and given to the city in 1963 by the Masur family to become its art museum.
• Biedenharn Museum and Gardens — 4.5 mi
  The 1913 Monroe home of the man the museum credits with first bottling Coca-Cola, with a Coca-Cola museum, his daughter's Bible collection and her gardens.

More markers nearby

• Claire Lee Chennault — steps away
• Selman Field Navigator Memorial — 0.6 mi
• Selman Field — 0.6 mi
• Fant-Ewing Coliseum — 1.6 mi