Takalok - 6/4/2008 9:54 PMhttp://www.thespacereview.com/article/1045/1I'm amazed, but I guess it was actually proposed to design a helicopter capable of not only retrieving an S-1C stage (Saturn first stage), but doing so while it was parachuting back to earth!!Not a bad little article.
Rusty_Barton - 6/4/2008 11:36 PMDon't know the story behind the pictures. The helicopter is serial number 18449. A Google search on that serial number reveals this info about the fate of the helicopter.
Gene DiGennaro - 7/4/2008 8:54 AMLooks like the photos were taken at KSC. It also looks like they were dated 1968. I don't think they were drop tests. I'm wondering if this is recovery training should the Apollo make an emergency landing on terra firma in and around the launch site.
wingod - 7/4/2008 10:21 AMNot possible that this was at KSC. Look in the background, there are hills there!! Looks more like west Texas. Maybe not west Texas as there is a lot of water around, maybe south Texas?
Gene DiGennaro - 7/4/2008 1:24 PMI wonder what the three guys on the ground are holding in the last picture. They're wearing some kind of helmet that looks like a football helmet or more likely a flight crew helmet. They also seem to be wearing the same clothes, so they're not NASA civilian technicians. Are they wet olive drab flight suits? Or are they wetsuits? Are they supposed to be stand-ins for Apollo astronauts or are they the rescue crew?
Gene DiGennaro - 7/4/2008 2:24 PMI wonder what the three guys on the ground are holding in the last picture. They're wearing some kind of helmet that looks like a football helmet or more likely a flight crew helmet. They also seem to be wearing the same clothes, so they're not NASA civilian technicians. Are they wet olive drab flight suits? Or are they wetsuits? Are they supposed to be stand-ins for Apollo astronauts or are they the rescue crew?
Jim - 7/4/2008 1:39 PMThey are the helicopter flight crews. One is wearing the helmet in the aft station of the Skyhook
Gene DiGennaro - 16/4/2008 8:15 AMThe same USAF PJ's with the ladder gizmo, combined with the Army Skycrane. Notice by 1970 that the Sky Blue/Grey of the USAF Jolly Green has given way to the USAF's Southeast Asia camouflage scheme.