This Day in Aviation History
December 18th, 1953
First flight of the Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave.
 
The S-56 came into being as an assault transport for the United States Marine Corps (USMC), with a capacity of 26 fully equipped troops. An order for the aircraft was placed in 1951 utilizing the U.S. Navy/U.S. Marine Corps designation of the time of HR2S. The first prototype, the XHR2S-1 flew in 1953 and production deliveries of the HR2S-1 began in July 1956 to Marine Helicopter Squadron ONE (HMX-1), with a total of sixty aircraft being produced.
 
The United States Army evaluated the prototype in 1954 and ordered 94 examples as the CH-37A, the first being delivered also in summer 1956. All Marine Corps and Army examples were delivered by mid-1960. Army examples were all upgraded to CH-37B status in the early 1960s, being given Lear auto-stabilization equipment and the ability to load and unload while hovering. In the 1962 unification of United States military aircraft designations, the USMC examples were redesignated from HR2S-1 to CH-37C.
 
At the time of delivery, the CH-37 was the largest helicopter in the Western world and it was Sikorsky’s first twin-engined helicopter. Two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engines were mounted in outboard pods that also contained the retractable landing gear. This left the fuselage free for cargo, which could be loaded and unloaded through large clamshell doors in the nose. The early models could carry a payload of either three M422 Mighty Mite (a lightweight jeep-like vehicle) or 26 troops. For storage, the main rotor blades folded back on the fuselage and tail rotor mast folded forward on the fuselage….
 
Source:
Wikipedia, Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave:
 
YouTube, “For the Marines — Newest Transport ‘Copter”: http://gstv.us/2evNhFy
Via HeloSociety
 
YouTube, Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave (1960): http://gstv.us/2evTqkN
Via AIRBOYD
 
Further Reading:
Sikorsky Archives, S-56/HR2S-1/H-37 Helicopter: http://gstv.us/2evNVD2
 
Old Machine Press, Sikorsky S-56 (CH-37 Mojave/Deuce) Helicopter: http://gstv.us/2evOLzx
 
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Photo from: http://gstv.us/2evTbGL
 
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