Vintage Helicopters at Intrepid Move...

Hi All -

When the Intrepid was towed back to Manhattan recently, I ventured over to Battery Park & Battery Park City to get a few shots, but what I did not expect was the treat of three vintage helicopters...

While not terribly rare across the country, Schweizer 269s & Hughes 369s are hardly common amongst the many corporate, govt agency and tourist choppers we get in our area.... but what was a truly shocking sight was a Sikorsky S-55 in the air over the harbor. To see this over NYC in 2008 even trumps the wonderful work our favorite Long Island Warbird Museum's has done in preserving an airworthy S-58 (kudos for them for that btw..)

Sadly, your mediocre photographer here failed to adjust from shooting maritime subjects to a more appropriate shutter speed for choppers, so be warned....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/...e3bf577d_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/...b0e2fb70_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/...78c6f4d1_o.jpg

Tom

Wow great stuff Tom, was this today?

Bill

Thanks Bill - I believe that was about Oct 1st or 2nd... Moose got some really nice shots of that event over in New Jersey here...

intrepid-returns-to-pier-86-october-2-lotta-pix-added-t13621s75.html

I am just running such a back log of shots - I still haven't processed the Floyd Bennett Fly-In from last year yet... :shock: There's just too much to shoot still.. can't ever catch up. I would've gone to JFK for the Qatar 777 & NW 757 w/winglets and then over to FRG for the DC-9-3, but the marathon has the Verrazano Bridge closed until 3pm for the marathon today so its just an editing day for me now...

Tom

tom, that sikorsky is beautiful! nice work as usual.

Love the Magnum PI chopper! :)

You know, I could have sworn that was a Chickasaw I saw [bad choice of words] over in Weehawken during the move, but I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Glad you caught her up close!

Great shots. Love that S-55. Interesting that it is registered to a Sparta Rotors in Newton, NJ but you go to their
website which really is just a cover page they have a Manhattan address and telephone #.

Apparently theres only 17 S-55s still listed as airworthy, (which probably means alot less than that). One was supposed to re-enact the 1st New York Airways flight last year, but I don't know if that ever happened or not. Didn't read about it. I guess the most notable one we've seen around the net is the one that had been doing the Grand Canyon tours a few years back.

Since this one is active locally (up to a point I guess..I certainly never saw it before, and I've been watching the skies over NYC for many years now) and we have the S-58 in Long Island, it would be nice to get them together at some point. Rotorfest should really see about recruiting them for their show next year.

On a related note, apparently only one S-62 is still active (up in Alaska perhaps?) although the Mid Atlantic Air Museum might keep theirs airworthy as well, I don't know. But, they're both in Coast Guard livery, including even the civil one in Alaska. Its a shame one of the Islanders Helicopters examples wasn't preserved as they were a fixture for a few years over New York and into Garden City Long Island. And, sadly, no images of it on either A.net or JP last I checked.

Tom

By the way, that Red, White & Blue Schweizer 269 not only flew *under* the Verrazano Bridge preceding Fleetweek a couple of years back (the only other time I've ever seen it) but it actually flew *between* the base of the Bridge and landside (on the Brooklyn side) *while* under the bridge. Not necessarily an unsafe thing to do really, but certainly not standard procedure... :)

Tom

Here's another view of the S-55.... a real eggbeater

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/...cecf01.jpg?v=0

now all we need is a BV107 in New York Airways colors !

[quote="Tom_Turner"]By the way, that Red, White & Blue Schweizer 269 not only flew *under* the Verrazano Bridge preceding Fleetweek a couple of years back (the only other time I've ever seen it) but it actually flew *between* the base of the Bridge and landside (on the Brooklyn side) *while* under the bridge. Not necessarily an unsafe thing to do really, but certainly not standard procedure... :)

Back when East 60 Street was in operation I used to see copters depart the heliport and make a quick right turn and zip under the
Queensboro Bridge heading southbound. I forget where I read/heard but they were discouraged from doing that eventually. Having
cables and such hanging from construction on the bridge probably was a good reason for that. :lol:

I'm pretty sure that first red white and blue chopper is based at my airport (CDW)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by threeholerglory

I'm pretty sure that first red white and blue chopper is based at my airport (CDW)

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N9623F has been around for awhile and its owned by a guy from Morris County.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tom_Turner

Apparently theres only 17 S-55s still listed as airworthy, (which probably means alot less than that). One was supposed to re-enact the 1st New York Airways flight last year, but I don't know if that ever happened or not. Didn't read about it.

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The original S-55 that flew for New York Airways is now N111VA and currently sits 100 feet outside my office here at Compton/Woodley Airport. (I am actually looking at it as I type this). It was scheduled to fly back east last spring but shortly after takeoff from the airport lost power and made an emergency landing in a school parking lot. It was brought back to the airport where it now sits with the rotor blades removed

There is a web site dedicated to N111VA, http://www.s-55.net, although it hasn't been updated in a long time.

-Andrew

I remember S-55 Sikorsky helicopters being used for transportation over NYC during the 50's and 60's. Used to go to Manhattan pier with my Uncle, who was a pilot, and my Dad to watch them take off and land. I fell in love with copters then. Was so happy to discover that Kermit Weeks, owner of Fantasy of Flight just bought the S-55 that made the first passenger / mail delivery in New York in July 1953. I watched the video of it arriving at his facility. It had been rotting in a aircraft museum's parking lot in Compton, California for years. Glad to see Mr. Weeks is going to restore, and hopefully get it flying again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdG5bPwcHw0

Welcome to the site! That is quite a necro-posting from a 4-year-old thread but I liked the vid.