H-37 & H-43 Working Warbirds

[Larry Wielgosz]

CH-37B 54-0999 N14463. Caught this beast flying a short hop. 20 minutes out & back. Loud due to those two R-2800s working hard. I was amazed to see one fly. Rare helicopter. Especially if flying. Tucson Airport. Keystone Helicopters. Photo taken 1977 or 1978.








ex-USAF HH-43F 59-1576 N43XK. Owned & flown by Kaman Helicopter Manufacturer. Meriden Airport, CT 1998 or 1999. I had some friends who worked & flew on these back in their day. Several nicknames. Pedro, Huskie, & Whistlin Sh#thouse. When I heard it fly I knew how it got that last nickname. The wooden blades whistled real well. I loved hearing about and then reading about refueling from a 55 gallon drum of fuel sitting in the back of the cabin. The flight mechanic would hand pump the fuel into the fuel tanks. This extended their range to get rescues further into North Vietnam. I recall someone in I think Washington State recently flying an ex-USAF H-43 painted in USAF colors. Beautiful looking. Their only problem was the blades were running out of flight hours.




ex-USAF HH-43F N321WN. Luke AFB, AZ March 1986. Crop sprayer. This outfit had I think 2 flyable H-43s & several airframes sitting on their property. One of flyable aircraft had a car battery to start the helicopter up. Also used a generic auto RPM gauge for the rotor system.



Larry

[K5DH]

Here are four photos of that very same Keystone CH-37B, N14463, that I shot in July, 1984, at New Castle Airport (Delaware). The helo was sitting on the airport grounds behind the Dawn Aeronautics facility, which is where my Dad kept his Cherokee (N5997U, long since deceased). The rotor blades were not installed, but the ship appeared to be otherwise intact. I checked the FAA records just now, and the ship is still registered Aircrane, Inc., of Birchrunville, Chester County, PA (just outside Philly).









Does anyone know if this grand old lady is still airworthy, or if she even still exists in one piece?

Cheers,
Dean K5DH

[jet1]

the last one of those I saw was in marine livery and appropriately named "TIRED DUDE"

[RareBear]

I saw this H-37 at a scrapyard just east of the Mojave, CA, airport in March of 2009. The N-number, N7394, is also registered to Aircrane, Inc., near Chester, PA, and is still showing as active, although that is obviously not the case.

Walt

[JBoyle]

I've read where one of the ex_keystone CH-37s eneded up as adive attraction in a flooded rock quarry somewhere.

One wonders if there aren't enough dynamic componets in storage somewhere out there to make one airworthy again. Since it's parts are fairly unique to the type and didn't have much cilvil or any foreign use, there might be some stuff out there.
(I believe the Skycrame shared some rotor components...)

Speaking of Civil HH-43s....
Years ago there was an outfit in Northern Idaho, Precision Helicopters, which rebuilt Huskies for the logging trade.
I don't know if they're stiull around, but justtoday I saw a civil Huskie in front of as shop just west of Sandpoint, Idaho. I've seen other helicopters there before and knew they have used Huskies and K-Maxs in the area, but today there was a basic but stripped HH-43 airframe, obviously being rebuilt.
I stopped to look at it, but I didn't drive onto the property since it was marked "No tresspassing".

[airnutz]

Aircrane, Inc. has 43 CH-37s registered.

These birds were discussed again on a thread here a coupla' years ago when Gary was musing about getting
one for Austin Acres. IIRC..and I often don't, those H-37's..for the most part are, or were in a salvage
yard in Arizona. I believe there are photos of that yard on an unofficial AMARC website.

[Second Air Force]

When we visited Tucson in the winter of '88-'89 there were a number, probably ten to fifteen, CH-37s in one of the holding/scrap/salvage yards near AMARC. They were all still in military paint and most, if not all, had many parts removed. It's possible these are the ships in question. I may have a couple of photos of them if only I can remember where the pictures are.

A neat machine, but it would be a spendy proposition to keep one flying!

Scott

[m charters]

When I was last in Tucson they were still there. I would love to see one of these restored and flying.
They are unique! I was at Pima and saw the one there, then went for a drive around the boneyard on the civilian side and saw the others. Someone with deep pockets please step forward! I can imagine the operating cost with 2 R-2800's!

[mustangdriver]

There is one preserved in the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL

[Fouga23]

These birds were discussed again on a thread here a coupla' years ago when Gary was musing about getting
one for Austin Acres. IIRC..and I often don't, those H-37's..for the most part are, or were in a salvage
yard in Arizona. I believe there are photos of that yard on an unofficial AMARC website.

Yeah, I remember that thread The discussion was about how great a man-cave one would be

[Larry Wielgosz]

Here are some photos of the scrapped H-37s (& H-34s) we are all talking about sitting in Tucson in 1977 and 1986. There were Army & Marine airframes. The airframe is one thing but the dynamic components is another issue. I have 32 years of helicopter experience ( mechanic & inspector with A&P). Finding experienced helicopter people for routine hiring is hard enough to come by from what I have personally seen. Never mind tearing into the gearboxes & rotorheads. You would also spend a bunch of money building up the gearbox test stand if you want to do things safely. You have to know what you are doing with them. Sikorsky calls their transmission dept. - precision assembly. The rotorheads and the gearboxes on the H-37 are unique to the H-37 only. The tail rotor is similar to the H-53 but would not work. I think the H-37 airframe is magnesium. If you spent enough money and had the desire to do it anything is possible. That FAA website lists what is registered but does not list if it is flyable and has a current airworthiness certificate. It would be great to see one fly and I think I saw my only chance back in the 1970s.

I used to visit Keystone Helicopter at Tucson quite often and it was a special day that I happened to catch them flying one of their H-37s. A rare day indeed. By the way - Keystone Helicopters is located in Pennsylvania. Keystone Helicopter is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sikorsky Aircraft. They produce the S-76 there and Sikorsky's new S-92. Sikorsky also produces both models I mentioned above at their CT facility. They have to for business purposes. They would loose their production certificate in CT if they stopped building them there.

Army H-37s 1977-79


Marine H-37s 1977-78


Army H-37s 1986


Marine H-37s 1986



Larry

[SIDSIKO]

Sad news about the H-37's at the yards around D-M. When I last visited in 2009, all but two had been put through the shredder, as the area where they were stored has been subject to a clean up. I believe two are still in a yard, which are reserved for museums.

Sid