Happy Birthday to the Sikorsky CH-54B/S-64 Skycrane! First flying on May 9th 1962, this beast of a machine is a twin engined helicopter powered by two Pratt & Whitney T73. At the time the US Army ordered over 100 aircraft to be used in Vietnam to recover downed aircraft, While the US Army doesn’t operate the Crane anymore, Erickson Helicopter’s still fly the S-64 and owns the type certificate to build them.
I saw one of these in person they are giants! It was in a aircraft hangar.
Must been a huge hangar. I’ve had a chance to jumpseat with these guys they have two jumpseats!
Some of the rotors were folded in
Lolz I was abt to say u cant say happy bday to staff members in a page
just look up ‘bradley airport museum skycrane’ you will find it.
Very cool!
They look huge! 😮 I never knew they are this big literally. Massive beast.
But how big is this helicopter comparing to the Mil Mii-12? 🤨
Just showing the size difference, I love the MI 12, it’s so ugly lol
Crew: 6 (pilot, copilot, flight engineer, electrician, navigator, radio operator)
Capacity: 196 passengers
normal 44,000 lb
maximum 88,000 lb
Length 121 ft 5 in
Height 41ft
Powerplant: 4 Soloviev D-25VF turboshaft engines, 4,800 kW (6,500 shp) each
Max: 140 knots
Cruise: 130 knots
Range: 270 nm
Crew: 3 (pilot, co-pilot), plus one engineer or rear-facing observer
Capacity up to 5 total persons
Payload: 20,000 lb
Length: 70 ft 3 in
Height: 18 ft 7 in
Max speed: 109 knots
Cruise: 90 knots
Uhh I’ll stick to Robinson’s lmao
You’re one of the very few people who wouldn’t want to fly an easy helicopter lol
Ik it’s hard to handle but I’ve seen the cockpits of those cranes and compared to a Robinson I think they have a little less switches
Got lucky enough to see one of these monsters in the sky. Engine was loud enough to wake me up, even at a mile away.
Once you train on the Crane you’ll learn ;)
It’s a beast!
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