CH54A Skycrane/S-54 Aircrane

[Stinky The Clown]

This was first built by Sikorsky Aircraft. You'll see it in coverage of the SoCal fires. Originally flown in 1962, Sikorsky, years later, sold the rights to the design to Erikson Aircraft who currently builds new ones and remanufactures old ones.

Ugly as sin unless you're fighting a fire or lifting a high voltage tower into place or putting a multi-ton HVAC unit on top of a new skyscraper.

I worked at Sikorsky for a short while after I got out of the Navy. Back then, they also had tried to sell these as the platform to move MASH units where needed. They also had weapons systems designed for them but that never went anywhere either.

Only now, in old age, have these heavy lift giants come into their own.

[NYVet]

1. I remember when I first saw these helicopters

I was thinking that it looked like an insect trying to hump a piece of gum.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. A perfectly apt description!

They're butt ugly.

[NeedleCast]

3. That is like the A-10 of helicopters

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Or a DC3

Fly anywhere/do anything

[Cooley Hurd]

5. I like your analogy...

...very Gooney Bird-esque, but, man, can it perform!:thumbsup:

[RexDart]

6. I wonder if they'll call tanker 910 in.

It's a 30 year old DC-10 that has been fitted with tanks for fire fighting. Let's see if I can get the photo to work, this is from wiki.


Wiki page

Must be a sight to see having it boom over the ridges. Although with the winds, I don't know if they'll allow much into the air.

[SoCalDem]

7. The problem we have now, is that the winds so strong and twaeky

That they have to fly very low to make sure the water makes it to the ground..and this is canyon land..combine that with near zero visibility and gusts up to 100MPH, and you can see why they're not doing a lot of water dropping.

[lonestarnot]

9. Damn it! A double whammie.

[RexDart]

11. It hit some trees on a drop earlier in the year.

Given the tons of water it caries, pinpoint drops might not be needed. Meaning that you could put a little more space between the plane and the ground.

This is a photo of some left wing damage after it hit a downdraft on a run, dropped the wing and clipped some trees.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. I've often wondered if we're better with one large aircraft or a bunch of smaller ones

I guess we're best having both options.

Man, dassa BIG tanker.

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. Evergreen Aviation has a similar tanker on a 747 platform

Slide show on this plane;
http://www.leareed.com/EricWeb/5-31-06AirTankerShow/

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Just saw Tanker 910 on the job on teevee

Its making dumps right now. The Evergreen (?) president was on saying he wished their 747 was certified so it could be there, too.

[Crabby Appleton]

10. I mentioned the Skycrane in the ugly helicopter thread the other day

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x7055169

[RexDart]

13. 910 is on scene. Making drops at Lake Arrowhead. - Video

Video

Ignore the talking heads. As in most cases, they're trying to fill space. Still, it's an impressive piece of footage watching a big plane bounce around like that.

[cherokeeprogressive]

18. I watched Tanker 910 in action during the Butler II fire a few weeks back. The pilot flew it like

it was a Cessna. I took some killer sequential hi-def photos of his drops. They've been sitting on the ground in Victorville just itchin' for the winds to cooperate so they could get up here. That pilot saved our asses here in Big Bear Lake.

I'm looking out my window at the smoke from the Green Valley Lake fire (Slide fire) right now. The wind has lessened a little bit and the smoke is TOWERING over the mountains. Now I'm worried that we're gonna get back to our normal West to East prevailing wind, which will send it in our direction.

They should take some of those out of service commercial airliners sitting in Mojave and convert them to do the same thing.

[TheMightyFavog]

14. No weapos systems...

I thought they used these things in 'Nam for dropping really big bombs for clearing out landing zones in the middle of the jungle.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. To be honest, I'm not sure

I was at the factory after my turn in the Navy and the Skycrane had just come out (My Dad was on the development team in Sikorsky's Skunkworks). I only know what was discussed at the factory. While they had mock-ups of weapons systems, I'm not aware of any actually being built.

[qdemn7]

15. Thanks good post!

I was not aware Sikorsky had sold the rights to Erikson. Learn something new every day!