Thursday, May 23, 2024

Heavy Lift

 


13 comments:

  1. Reminds me of the King Arthur statue at Tintagel, Cornwall, England.

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  2. The old Tarhe helo. I remember seeing one in flight for the first time at Ft. Benning many, many moons ago and just silently saying, "WTF?" Pretty remarkable aircraft.

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  3. Saw one of these with some kind of water spray rig to fight range fires in SoCal. Used to refill from a pond behind our house at the north end of Etiwanda Ave.

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    1. That'd be rigs like this:

      https://i.imgur.com/yOHjPgx.jpg

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    2. Erickson Aircrane, inventor of their 2,650 US gal fixed retardant tank that is capable of refilling in 45 seconds from a water source 18 inches deep.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erickson_Inc.

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  4. reminds me of a dragonfly

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    1. That's just what I thought the first time I saw one.

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  5. I always enjoyed my time flying the crane. OR just riding in the cockpit 3rd seat which had the clear floor under your feet so you could see the load.

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  6. Early 80, was assigned the USMC Yuma, AZ...we would see them coming from eastern Arizona, a boneyard, slinging F4s on their was way San Diego...just a stop for gas in Yuma.

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  7. The Fascinating Story of the S-64 Air Crane® Helicopter
    https://ericksoninc.com/erickson-edge/50th-anniversary/the-fascinating-story-of-the-air-crane-helicopter/

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    1. It's a shame Wikipedia doesn't have a page on Jack Erickson. His is an amazing story.
      He's still alive and living in Oregon, where his collection is located.
      https://www.ericksoncollection.com/

      His granddaughter is very interested in her family's history and is always asking Jack about his life. I hope she writes a book about him and his father Axel, who is every bit as interesting as Jack. That would be a great read.

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  8. Needed a Sky Crane in RVN to lift a NVA cargo truck out of the jungle. It wound up in the museum at Fort Campbell along with an artillery piece we found at the same equipment cache.

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