egg beater at war

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:10 pm

cbi 1944

Django · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:11 pm

Really? They were operational before the war ended?

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:15 pm

r-4 s/n 42-107237 crashed in Burma on Jul 26, 1945.

noizeedave · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:23 pm

Heres a pic from Wright Field prior to CBI deployment

Sikorsky YR-4B, YH-4B 1943 = First production. Bomb racks for anti-sub duty. 180hp R-550-1; rotor: 38'0" length: 48'2" load: 515# v: 75/x/0 range: 130 ceiling: 8,000'. POP: 27 [42-107237/107248, 43-28223/28235, -28247, -47953], of which 3 to USCG and 7 to Great Britain as Hoverfly I. Additionally, 15 were produced for USN as HNS-1. Redesignated as YH-4B in 1948.

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:47 pm

My good friend, the late Stamford Robertson, was an L-4 pilot in Burma and escorted the R-4's in and out during the first combat rescue use of the helicopter. They carried .45's, and M-1 carbine and a bunch of grenades to provided "top cover".
Jerry

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:54 pm

According to a caption I have, Jack's picture shows the helicopter on it's first test flight the day after it arrived in Burma via C-54. Caption says that it is being flown by 1st Lt. Irwin C. Steiner from 7845 Cornhill Ave., Chicago, IL.

A few more photos of this helicopter:

At Bahmo, Burma

After running out of fuel on a rescue mission it got stranded and was "rescued" by an L-5.

Retrieving sensitive and useful items from a downed B-25

An in-flight shot.

Some other helicopters also saw service towards the end of the war in at least two other locations.

Ryan

Aeronut · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:06 am

Information gleened from the reports of the UKs Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment, Beaulieu, Hampshire, shows that Sikorsky Hoverfly I KK978 was responsible for bringing down :shock:

Spitfire NH840 (Cat 5) which had collided with the weighted cable being towed by the Hoverfly. The date was 9 August 1945!

Was this the first air to air kill for a helicopter?

Randy Wilson · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:44 am

Platt-LePage XR-1 in flight with Frank Gregory at the controls.

From Anything a Horse Can Do, The Story of the Helicopter by Colonel H. F. Gregory, 1944. The XR-1 was the U. S. Army's second helicopter - anyone want to guess what was the first and when it flew? No ponies - sorry. Yes, the answer is in the book

If you are interested in the early history of U.S. military helicopters, this is a very interesting book. Gregory was a test pilot for the R-4 and other early helicopters for the Army. It was published in 1944 so it doesn't cover much if any operational use during WWII but does have some interesting thoughts on the future of the helicopter seen from that time.

Randy

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:04 am

the 1st operational mission was a casualty evacuation......... by the korean war they had honed it down pretty good as to procedure.l by vietnam x 10, now..... were saving more casualties than ever.

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:06 am

by the way..... very excellent rare pics jack!! happy new year, didn't know you were ill, but glad your on the mend. best, tom

gary1954 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:04 pm

RyanShort1 wrote:

Retrieving sensitive and useful items from a downed B-25

Ryan

Besides the serial number which I can establish, does anyone have any additional details on this Particular B-25J-1 other than it appears to have crashed :shock:

tulsaboy · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:49 pm

Randy-

Neat info/photo of Frank Gregory! Here at our museum, Frank's son just donated all of Mr. Gregory's papers, uniforms, medals, books, documents etc. It's a great collection, with some fascinating information on the early days of the helicoptor program. If/when someone's interested, it's a great resource.

kevin

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:04 pm

gary1954 wrote:

Besides the serial number which I can establish, does anyone have any additional details on this Particular B-25J-1 other than it appears to have crashed :shock:

I'd have to go back and look it up. There were more photos in the series.

Ryan

gary1954 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:11 pm

It would be interesting to see if it was recovered, or if anything remained at the scene of the pile up

Randy Wilson · **Posted:** Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:16 pm

tulsaboy wrote:

Randy-

Neat info/photo of Frank Gregory! Here at our museum, Frank's son just donated all of Mr. Gregory's papers, uniforms, medals, books, documents etc. It's a great collection, with some fascinating information on the early days of the helicoptor program. If/when someone's interested, it's a great resource.

kevin

That is very interesting. Is that the Tulsa Air & Space Museum? Any idea how long it takes their collections and registration staff to process the documents, etc. before they are available for research? Just curious.

Randy

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