Can we please stop hotlinking pics?

And, while I was headed down that rabbit hole, I found a couple fo scary Chinook pics.  I remember the first one from some aviation book I had as a kid.  These pilots have some balls, no matter what gender they might be:

While there are a few copters on the page, I'll add this:

A CH-54 Tarhe that came to Ft Rucker, AL in 1991 to carry (sling load) a wingless C-47 to a museum in Florida. Somewhere I still may have the prints of the departure.

We had a tornado come through in the mid '90s, near where I grew up.  The tornado wiped out half a dozen of those giant erector set looking high-line power transmission towers.

I remember being stuck in traffic a few days after the tornado as they were replacing the towers with a skycrane.  Still one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

This picture shows them going together in pieces, I could be remembering it wrong, but I think the ones I watched lifted the whole damn thing and set it in place.  That was longer ago than I care to admit though.

RossD said:

In reply to Appleseed :

That can't be real...

 

My mom had one lol. Very real, very cool 

Basically, 2 mirrored Mi-6 drivetrains synchronized by a shaft running through the winglets.  Rotor speed a whopping 112 rpm - rotor diameter something like 115 feet each.

Mi-10, Russia's anwer to the Skycrane:

The Russians I met were happy to fly on a Blackhawk

...and for a hotlink:

Duke said:

I heart insane Sovietski-era Russian stuff:

At the Greenwich Connecticut Concours D'Elegance:

Tupolev Cosmonaut Recovery Vehicle

Sikorsky's S-64 design is now wholly owned, built,  and supported by Erickson, inc. They build new Skycranes, and re-build CH-54s. Every S-64E (Erickson) is named once it leaves the shop. 

This is Elvis.

In reply to Woody :

Pretty sure that sold at Barret Jackson a few years ago.

Cool piece!

Edit: Found it.

https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1978-TUPOLEV-N007-GULLWING-BOAT-178584

In reply to Appleseed :

Back in the '80s, they used to cart one around in a Guppy. I took these in Kinston, NC in '87, when they were going to lift an air conditioning unit on top of a hospital (fingers crossed that P-bucket doesn't screw this up).

Please don't ask why I want one of these, it can't be explained.

In reply to Appleseed :

Now on display at the Dayton Air Museum. Has a definite "aw hell no" vibe to it.

GameboyRMH said:

I'm more shaken by the fact that someone on planet earth is still wearing a calculator watch!