Thanks, Sav. They're some of the best photos I've seen of this 500D yet.
I am in contact with a test pilot who flew for Hughes back in the late seventies (in relation to research for my planned book). He was in the Production Flight Test section at the time of this aircraft's delivery and flew this helicopter prior to delivery to Hawaii. This heli has flown only in Hawaii for all of its service and was suffering with some corrosion consistent with that environment. He was at Phoenix Heliparts recently and he reckons this ship is now in as good a condition as the day it was pushed out of the factory back in the seventies, after the refurbishment work carried out on it.
500 Fan.