The answer really is yes . . .

. . . about the Apache and its flight capabilities:

I can't embed the video here, but if you click on the link, you'll see.

http://youtu.be/D1qJYBD040I

Now, would you do this in real combat? More than once? Those are other questions entirely . . .

(For some reason, this happens to be the most popular question I'm asked about the game. Note that the video is from the 1980s. And, uh, about that armor plating . . .)