AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 88 / 117

Plate 88 of 117 · Cold War · Base rescue and crash-fire helicopter

Kaman HH-43 Huskie

HH-43B Huskie, painted as 62-4535, a Kaman HH-43B Huskie local base rescue and crash-fire helicopter of the United States Air Force, powered by a Lycoming T53 turboshaft driving two intermeshing two-blade rotors on outward-canted masts, which served with USAF rescue detachments in Britain including Upper Heyford and is kept by Midland Air Museum at Coventry; painted as it is shown there: Aircraft Gray overall with black ‘U.S. AIR FORCE’ lettering along the forward boom tubes, a black, yellow and black band on each tail boom, the star-and-bar with the rescue service shield on each side of the cabin, a yellow-bordered ‘RESCUE’ panel on each cockpit door, a black panel across the deck front carrying the serial ‘4535’ in a yellow-outlined lozenge, and yellow ‘24518’ serial panels on the outer fins, which came from sister aircraft 62-4518 and are shown as the museum displays them; the museum shows the aircraft with rotor heads only, so the black, yellow-tipped blades follow other HH-43Bs, and the parked blade positions are chosen to clear each other.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 62-4535, a Kaman HH-43B Huskie local base rescue and crash-fire helicopter of the United States Air Force, powered by a Lycoming T53 turboshaft driving two intermeshing two-blade rotors on outward-canted masts, which served with USAF rescue detachments in Britain including Upper Heyford and is kept by Midland Air Museum at Coventry; painted as it is shown there: Aircraft Gray overall with black ‘U.S. AIR FORCE’ lettering along the forward boom tubes, a black, yellow and black band on each tail boom, the star-and-bar with the rescue service shield on each side of the cabin, a yellow-bordered ‘RESCUE’ panel on each cockpit door, a black panel across the deck front carrying the serial ‘4535’ in a yellow-outlined lozenge, and yellow ‘24518’ serial panels on the outer fins, which came from sister aircraft 62-4518 and are shown as the museum displays them; the museum shows the aircraft with rotor heads only, so the black, yellow-tipped blades follow other HH-43Bs, and the parked blade positions are chosen to clear each other. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.0 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (HUP-3, H-21, Huskie, OH-6, QH-50); engine, crew and dimensions are for the HH-43B Huskie modelled here.

History

The HH-43B Huskie

Charles Kaman founded his company in 1945 to build helicopters with two rotors that intermesh like the blades of an egg whisk. The two rotors sit on masts canted outwards, turn in opposite directions and are geared together so that their blades never meet. Because each rotor cancels the other’s torque, no tail rotor is needed, and all of the engine’s power goes into lift. Kaman also steered his blades in an unusual way: instead of twisting the whole blade at the root, the pilot moved small aerofoils, called servo-flaps, on the trailing edge of each blade, and they twisted the blade in flight. Anton Flettner, whose intermeshing Fl 282 had flown in wartime Germany, worked on the designs as Kaman’s chief designer.

Kaman’s K-600, the prototype of the HOK-1, first flew on 21 April 1953. The US Navy and Marine Corps bought piston-engined versions as the HOK-1 and HUK-1, and in 1958 the US Air Force took the H-43A for local base rescue: standing by on an airfield to reach a crashed aircraft within minutes. The H-43B, accepted in June 1959, moved its Lycoming T53 turboshaft up on to the cabin roof, which doubled the space inside and allowed a pair of clamshell doors at the back of the cabin. It carried a pilot, a co-pilot and two firefighter-rescuemen, with a fire suppression kit of foam and hoses slung beneath it. The rotor downwash blew the flames back from the cockpit while the crew went in. Huskies also set several helicopter climb, altitude and distance records in the early 1960s.

From 1964 Huskies went to South-East Asia, where they flew under the radio call-sign “Pedro” and flew more rescue missions than all other helicopters combined, though they were short-ranged and unarmoured. About 370 of the family were built. The Air Force began replacing them with larger Sikorsky types in the early 1970s and the last left service in 1975. In Britain, Huskies stood rescue alert at the American bases through the 1960s and early 1970s, and very few survive here.

This airframe

HH-43B Huskie 62-4535

62-4535The airframe modelled

62-4535, construction number 161, served with the USAF base rescue detachments in England, and it was photographed at RAF Upper Heyford in 1970 and 1972. After the type was retired it was stored at Woodbridge, rebuilt with parts of sister aircraft 62-4518 and loaned to Midland Air Museum at Coventry, where it has been since the early 1980s. After many years in the open it was restored indoors, and it is now displayed in the museum’s hangar. The model shows it as photographed there: Aircraft Gray overall, black “U.S. AIR FORCE” lettering along the forward boom tubes, a black, yellow and black band round each tail boom, the star-and-bar with the rescue service shield on each side of the cabin, a yellow-bordered “RESCUE” panel on each cockpit door, and “4535” in a yellow-outlined lozenge on a black panel across the front of the decking. The outer fins carry yellow panels with the serial “24518”, because the tail came from 62-4518, and they are painted as the museum shows them. The museum displays the aircraft with its rotor heads only, so the black, yellow-tipped blades follow other HH-43Bs.

See it at Midland Air Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the HH-43B Huskie in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 117 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.