I picked up a couple of old photos of Royal Navy Dragonflys last weekend at a local bootsale.
on the back is stamped RNAS Gosport, and the date 2nd of march 1953.
some of them have winches fitted, and some have tail skids fitted.
i can understand only a few having winches, but i’m suprised that only some have the tail skid fitted, i thought that would have been part of the main airframe, not an optional extra.
By: Kernowglyn - 23rd January 2007 at 22:21
Yes, I got to play with the Sioux (WAB-47G3B-1 catchy title, eh?), a splendid and reliable machine. Even with a Stokes litter either side and the doors off it would cruise at 70kts – which beat the 55kts the Hiller could manage. Flying into any sort of wind you could not fail to notice surface transport going faster! Time to spare? Go by (Hiller) Air!!
By: J Boyle - 23rd January 2007 at 20:33
The purpose was to damp vibrations, and I don’t think they would have given much protection in a tail strike.
Interesting. Learn something new all the time.
On Bell 47s, the guard was there to protect the tail rotor. Early versions (Bell 47B) had the straight sticks you describe, but later models had the half-circle units.
They did work to protect the tail rotor….I flared a bit to much in a practice autorotation and scraped the paint…but had no other damage.
By: Kernowglyn - 23rd January 2007 at 19:58
When I was being taught (many years ago) to fly helicopters we had the Hiller 12B and 12C as our mounts. What appeared to be the ‘tail skid’ was known to us as ‘hockey sticks’. These were hollow metal tubes hinged lightly to the booms. The purpose was to damp vibrations, and I don’t think they would have given much protection in a tail strike.
By: Lee Howard - 23rd January 2007 at 17:53
Very nice – I’ve seen some shots like this of 705 NAS Dragonflies at RNAS Gosport (HMS Siskin) elsewhere.
By: J Boyle - 23rd January 2007 at 17:13
i’m suprised that only some have the tail skid fitted, i thought that would have been part of the main airframe, not an optional extra.
Neat photos…it must have been a sight back then when helicopters were rather rare.
For what it’s worth, I don’t recall seeing the skids on any American versions…S-51/H-5.
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January 23, 2007 at 3:38 pm