H-19A Sikorsky Ckickasaw / Westland Whirlwind

[Mark Allen M]

I saw a request for this machine .... The Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw, was a multi-purpose helicopter used by the United States Army and United States Air Force. It was also license-built by Westland Aircraft as the Westland Whirlwind in the United Kingdom. Source, LIFE archives

Happy Holidays all, be happy and safe!!! ... I'll see ya's next year.

H-19A serial 51-386815 December 24 1952 five miles NNE of Black Mountain NC ... An epic Santa failure to deliver the goods.

Thanks for the Sikorsky S-55/H-19A photos! Looks like Santa had a bad time with that one back in the Fifites!

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.

Thanks again, and look forward to more photos next year!

[The Inspector]

' a little bit more magic dust for Santa.....a little bit MORE magic dust for Santa' "you're tellin' me man- that dude didn't know ANY tunes"

[JohnB]

I'ver seen the photos before, and oddly, my Revell model H-19 had a failure in the same place.

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.

[jdvoss]

JohnB:

Some other types used by all five services were:

Douglas C-54 /R5D Skymaster
Beech C-45 / JRB Expeditor
Consolidated L-5 /OY Sentinal

JohnV