:ok: The best looking choppers are the B430 and the MD520N with no cargo pod;)

:\ But the worst design has to be the new Kamov 226A with car mirrors on its sides :{

Wunper,

Thanks for the memories! That Sikorsky S-67 Blackhawk (the one-word Blackhawk!) was for a while the fastest helicopter in the world (219 mph), and a dream to fly. The top photo has John Dixson in the back seat (he is Sikorsky's Chief of Flight Operations today at West Palm Beach) and the bottom photo shows Byron Graham in the front seat (he was the Dean of SA test pilots) and in the back was Kurt Cannon (he unfortunately died at Farnborough in 1974).

As a very junior test pilot, I had the fortune to have 2 flights in the S-67 in 1974, when we prepared it for the airshow. It was the smoothest, fastest helicopter I ever flew, and rolled like a dream.

Nick

Green with envy!!!

That bird looked like it was designed by a team with a passion for things that look right , what a type to have in your log book.

In 1967 I got to sit in the Cobra prototype when it was being demonstrated to the British Army here in UK. A slight 7 year old at the time I was deemed too small to be allowed a jolly in the machine. I think the nimbys round our hick local airport were complaining about the noise for several days afterwards (both the aircraft and maybe the noise I made beefing about not getting a ride in the machine!) . The retractable skid gear looked so neat as it tucked itself up out of the way.

If someone can host it I will share the pic with you.

Wunper

Wunper,

e mail it to me, & I'll host it for you.

Wunper,
The bottom photo was one of a series that included a cover shot on "Aviation Week" In one of the shots, Byron's raised middle finger is very evident, capturing Byron's spirit - he was a former Marine who flew F-4 Corsairs in WWII and who was the quintessential engineering test pilot. If I know anything about helicopters, it was Byron who showed it to me.

I checked out in "Snakes" in 1969, and have about 1000 hours in them, and was the Battalion instructor pilot. Fun aircraft, certainly purpose-built! And a wonder in 1969! Can't say they impress me that much today, with Apache and Mi-28 in service, and Comanche just around the corner.

BELL 430 is my top choice with AB139 a close second. Every one to their own , but the MD Notars are Yuck!!!!

Here's the picture of the very pretty Cobra prototype during a UK marketing tour 1967 , that's me in the back seat shortly before being told I could not have a ride in it,:{

Fortunately I do not have a photo recording my bid to achieve world class spoilt brat status taken after that! (check out those ears!)


http://www.helicopterservice.com.au/...ot%20small.jpg



Many thanks for Hosting it for me John E

Wunper:ok:

Christ, who'd have thought the cobra was 36+ years old:oh:

Wunper / Nick: tell us more about the demise of the S76-Blackhawk...was it the precursor to the current blackhawk, and what is the follow on from the cobra? What happened at Farnboro?
Brilliant memories/pics - Wunper - thanks.

Wunper,

Thanks for that! Wonderful shot knowing you started so young!

wunper,

We had a W-1 in my unit in Vietnam who looked like you in that photo, but a bit younger. Was that you?

Great photo, never lose it! That proves my thesis, take a boy, sit him in a cockpit, ruin his life! I was 8, my mother took me for a tour of Floyd Bennett Field, saw an airshow, ate Air Force hot dogs. Life down the drain!

The worlds "prettiest" helicopter?

Absotively and posilutely the Westland built Sea King MK43B of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, with both hands down and no doubt in my mind!!:ok: :ok:

Looks like a prototype AB139!!

LE

Looks to me like a S76 with a 412 nose stuck to it!:8 :ok: