KV-107 II Helicopter 川崎 バートル-107 II ヘリコプター [Showa]

After a lengthy development process that began in 1957, the US military procured a new tandem rotor helicopter called the CH-46 Sea Knight for service mainly for use by the Marine Corps and Navy in 1961 with the helicopter having its first flight in 1962. Its main tasks were to airlift troops to the battle zone and provide support for the troops as they would take an objective as well as provide movement of equipment such as artillery and supplies. The helicopter proved capable of handling other missions such as search and rescue as supplying forward bases. For defense, the helicopter is capable of carrying two 12.7mm machine guns with one on each side of the helicopter.

Even before it entered into service with the US military, the CH-46 entered civilian service under a different name, which was the BV-107 II. Not long after the CH-46 came into service, the US allowed several other nations to gain access to use of the helicopter with Japan being among them. After buying the plans and designs from America, the Japanese officially began to build their own version of the helicopter in 1965 and they called it the KV-107 II. Around that time though, creatures of incredible power such as Godzilla devastated Japan from one end to the other. To gain even a remote chance of defending her people, the Japanese Self Defense Force brought in any weapon that they could get their hands on to combat the threat and the KV-107 II was no exception. While they did not see any direct combat action, they did contribute to the defense of Japan against Godzilla and his brethren.

During the crisis when Godzilla, the king of the monsters, faced off against the legendary ape monster known as King Kong, the KV-107 II played an important role in the fighting. Early in the crisis, a CH-46 flew from one of the American bases near the Arctic Ocean to the last known position of the submarine Seahawk. When the CH-46 spotted the submarine's mayday water signal, its pilots witnessed the re-emergence of Godzilla from his iceberg prison. Later in an attempt to bring the two monsters together so as that they would destroy each other, two KV-107 IIs helped tow King Kong by air, via large balloons attached to an exceptionally powerful wire that was stronger than steel, to Mount Fuji where Godzilla was located. Once they arrived, the helicopters detached the cables and King Kong literally slammed right into Godzilla. Soon the second round of one of the greatest battles between kaiju was on.

Sometime later, Godzilla returns from the dark depths of the ocean. On the open deserted plains east Nagoya, the JSDF launched an all out attempt to destroy Godzilla with a mix of ground action, air strikes, and use of electrical towers. After an earlier attempt to destroy Godzilla with the electrical towers in a night attack failed, the ground commander in charge of the operation launched Operation B. This involved luring Godzilla into range of the electrical towers once more and this time dropping incredibly large metal nets, known to conduct 20 to 30 million volts of electricity, onto the monster. Once Godzilla moved into position, twelve KV-107 IIs of the Second Airborne Squadron flew to the battle in groups of four with each group holding the large metal nets to drop onto Godzilla. Once in range, the three groups of helicopters dropped their cargo then quickly left the battle zone. The large metal nets dropped by the helicopters almost helped in using electricity to kill Godzilla but overconfident commanders helped foil the effort.

Later they would be involved in another crisis with King Kong although this time mainly as observers as King Kong battled against his mechanical double at Tokyo Tower.

When a horrific alien monster called Hedorah descended onto the Earth, the KV-107 IIs went into action once more to defend Japan. Because Hedorah used smoke and chemicals similar to smog and pollution as its main source of energy and weapons, scientists believed that dropping bombs filled with oxygen could have an effect on the kaiju. When the JSDF spotted Hedorah near Mount Fuji, the KV-107s IIs moved into action to test out that theory. Unfortunately, several attempts helped disproved that notion and during the engagement, Hedorah brought at least one of the helicopters down with a crimson energy beam from one of its eyes. Even when Hedorah had unwittingly wandered into a much better trap built by the JSDF while battling Godzilla, one of the KV-107s made a last ditch attack on Hedorah. Not surprisingly, the attack proved unsuccessful.

• The KV in the helicopter's name is short for Kawasaki Vertol (川崎 バートル - Kawasaki Batoru).
• The Toho Special Effects: All Kaiju Illustrated Encyclopedia (ISBN: 9784096820902) lists the flight speed of the craft as 255 kilometers per hour. However, real world performances would have this be more in the range of a median flight speed, as it was able to hit a max speed of 270 kilometers per hour while its cruising speed was 233 kilometers per hour.
• The KV-107 II Helicopter had a wide time frame of service in the Japanese Self-Defense Force. It was eventually phased out in favor of the UH-60 and SH-60 line of copters. As a result, though, the craft appears in both the Showa and Heisei series of Godzilla, being featured in The Return of Gozilla (1984) and Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) as well.