I'ver seen the photos before, and oddly, my Revell model H-19 had a failure in the same place.
jwc50 wrote:
Just a note - as the H-19/H04S/HRS, the S-55 saw service with ALL the U.S. military services, Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.
Aside from the C-47 (under its various names) I can't think of another aircraft to have that distinction of
widespread use by all the services.
Other possible contenders include the H-34 (USAF use was very limited to a few ex-USN examples as was USCG who had six and two of those were lost on the same day) and the H-60 series (again, I don't think the Marines have many aside from the VIP fleet), The Bell 47 (again USAF use was very limited to two VIP "J" models and some H-13D/Gs used for local base rescue in the 50s). Airplanes include the Beech 18 and the C-46.