Mysterious H-5 at New Smyrna Beach, FL 1997

[SIDSIKO]

I snapped this H-5 on rebuild at New Smyrna Beach, FL in 1997. I know Tom Crevasse had a H-5H N14528 (49-1999) registered to him in 1994. If you look at the rear of the hangar on the right, underneath the tail of the yellow H-5, you will see what was left of 49-1999, (you can just make out the light blue exhaust cover and rotor mast) possibly to be used a spares ship for the unidentified example on rebuild in the foreground



H-5H 49-1999 then popped up at Ramona, CA, in its original weathered blue c/s in 2001, looking a bit more complete than it is in the above photograph, but still in need of restoration. It was then sold or traded by Classic Rotors to the Evergreen Museum at McMinnville, where sadly it was reported as lost in the fire of July 2011. Here is a picture of it, kindly taken by Leon Clever in 1975 at Twin Pine airport, Pennington, NJ


So that was the end of 49-1999/N14528, which leads me to ask, what happened to the yellow H-5 in the picture and does anyone have an identity for it?

Sid

[Craig59]

Sid,

Just looking at the registry, could it be 48-0558 at the US Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker?

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/heloregistry/h5-480558.html

[SIDSIKO]

48-558 has been at Fort Rucker since at least October 1992 and I believe the late Jack Lenhardt, rebuilt it. So unlikely to be the one I saw at New Smyrna Beach. 48-558 was said to have been a Class 4 total loss in Korea on the 8th of September 1951, which leads me to think the example at Fort Rucker may be wearing false marks.

[eLaReF]

I took these shots in Dec 1996
The blue one https://www.flickr.com/photos/elaref/80 ... otostream/
The yellow one again, but almost identical to the one above https://www.flickr.com/photos/elaref/80 ... otostream/
As you can see from my own headers & comments I was too sure of ID's either!

[JohnB]

I wonder why Evergreen had 49-1999?
I think they had a H-5 from the nice helicopter collection they bought/were gifted/loaned from a Mr. Lenhardt from Hubbard, Oregon.
At any rate, in 1992 Lenhardt had 3 S-51s.

"49-1999A" (more than one 1999?) is listed in my Rotor Roster 1992 book as belonging to someone in Pennington, NJ.
It was the only H-5 listed as such with the FAA. All the others were listed as S-51s.

[ArtS]

I played on 49-1999 as a kid.

I met Harry Doan at the Mahalchick auction and took him to see 49-1999 with hope he would aquire and restore it. He subsequently purchased it. After his death, it moved all around the county as a spares source, fortunately it remained intact. It was transfered to Evergreen as part of a spares package from Mr. Lenhardt. I had initiated efforts with Mr. Lenhardt and Evergreen to aquire it after the transfer to Evergreen. Unfortunately, it was caught in the Evergreen turkey barn fire; it its aluminum-magnesium skin burned quite well. I've still been trying to get the remains but have been told that nothing can be released until the legal issues are resolved. Don't know what I'll do wih it but would like to try to save what's left, at least I can (hopefully) keep it from getting scrapped.

As far as the other S-51, my guess is it is one Mr. Doan had, but I could be wrong.

Regards,

Art S.

[Neal Nurmi]

There was an S-51 doing hover tests in Chino during the 1980s. I have no idea what airframe it might have been. I have a couple of photos somewhere, but I don't know where...

[JohnB]

There was an S-51 doing hover tests in Chino during the 1980s. I have no idea what airframe it might have been. I have a couple of photos somewhere, but I don't know where...

That I would have liked to have seen.
Sadly we don't see many old helicopters...(as the joke goes, most don't survive long enough to be old).

I've never seen (or heard of) a civil H-5..and civil S-51s were pretty much gone by the time I was born.
The UK did have a few license built versions with revised fuselages...Westland Widgeons...that operated until the 70s-80s.

Also, no one have ever flown a warbird R-4. I appreciate the blades (wood with fabric cover like a wing, not solid wood with cover) would be an issue, but how about one with modern blades?
The CAF has toyed with the idea of flying one, but I don't think it will ever happen. You can't whip out a credit card and get the thing restored (or engineered) like you can a Mustang.

[Craig59]

There was an S-51 doing hover tests in Chino during the 1980s. I have no idea what airframe it might have been. I have a couple of photos somewhere, but I don't know where...

Here's the one I snapped at Chino circa 1980.

Attachments

[AirJimL2]

I was at Evergreen on Saturday and noticed that the S-51 they have on display came from Harry Doan via Jack Lenhardt. Aerial Visuals says that it wasn't registered to Lenhardt until 1999, so is there any chance that is your mystery aircraft? The general look seems to match.

http://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDos ... rial=33340

Jim

[Zac Yates]

A warbird R-4 would be very cool.

That's all. I have nothing meaningful to add!