 gedenke wrote: |
| fallmonk wrote: | Wot about the CH54 Skycrane ?
the amout of "downed " aircraft that machine brought back saved the USAF lot of money during the vietnam war.
it was a tough old bird and once the US army was finished with lots of civilian contracters used it for many years ,its probably still in use now! |
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This link might interest you. By the way all the Skycranes you see on the site are refurbished and modifed old Army CH-54A/Bs. The videos are especially cool.
http://www.ericksonaircrane.com/
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Actually most of Erickson's aircraft are new aircraft, Erickson bought the rights to the CH-54 and they are building completely new aircraft. These are properly Erickson Skycranes, not CH-54's or Sikorsky Skycranes. Several other companies are still flying referb CH-54's though.
In California SAR is primarily flown by law enforcement, medivac is typically private. BO-105, Bell 222 and AS A-star / Twin star are pretty common medivac ships around here.
What kits are there for the H-43 besides the 1/32 Testors kit? If you are interested in the H-43 here is a pretty good site for the Pedro rescue service in Vietnam, the crews of the H-43 made several records for rescue in Vietnam, from the fastest to the most, also the first and last rescues of the Vietnam war.
http://users.acninc.net/padipaul/pedrohome.htm
Least appreciated? I think the H-43 is definately in the running, for all the development that resulted both in design and use it should be better known. It held numerous helicopter records, it was the first helicopter designed for rescue service, the only flying fire truck ever built and used (not just a water dropper). The early Sikorsky's would qualify too.