Hiller UH-12B

[bbftx]

Going through some of my Dad's stuff, I found a photo of him with a Hiller UH-12B helicopter. My father was a 30-year guy --- he's standing in the photo. He was a Lt. Col and CO of the 451st AAA Battalion at the time. He's greeting a visiting Colonel at the 451st's Heliport. This was taken August 1956. The Hiller looks super-clean and well maintained, doesn't it!
Cheers, BB

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

That craft always reminded me of the expression "strap an engine and propeller on your back and fly by the seat of your pants."

Just not a lot of airframe there, huh?

 

[maddawg308]

Helicopters from the 1940s-1950s all looked very odd to me. Part of the reason was most of them were piston-driven craft, which was limited in their lift capabilities. The airframe was designed around the engine, and shortcuts had to be made to limit the airframe's size and weight, to minimize gross weight of the aircraft while maximizing the lift capacity. The late 1950s was the death knell for piston-drivers, and turbine powered helos came into being starting with the Huey UH-1.

 

[toptiger]

The Huey went into production in 1960 and the first ones {Medevacs} went to VN in 1962 followed by some 12,000 others during the war. Some reports site 7,000 were destroyed, not all during combat ops.

All US Army helicopter pilots were first trained in piston engined helicopters until the basic trainer version of the Bell Jet Ranger became standard in the early 1990s.

Robinson helicopters {http://www.robinsonheli.com} is a very successful American manufacturer of piston helicopters for personal use, police, traffic reporting, etc. They produce more helicopters for civil use than any other company and have made more than 10,000 to date. Recently they added a turbine variant.

 

[toptiger]

I was reminded by another member that that the big difference in leaning to fly a piston helicopter rather than a turbine one is the throttle control. On a piston ship the pilot must roll on the throttle [which is a motorcycle grip type of control at the end of the collective which also governs lift] as he pulls up on the collective to hover or climb, at the same time he must add left pedal to compensate for the added torque. On a turbine ship the pilot simply sets the power for flight and never touches it again- one less control to learn.
Learning to fly with the automatic throttle is like learning to drive a vehicle with an automatic transmission. But the driver never learns how to use a clutch and a manual transmission.