16. RUSSIAN CUSTOMERS

One of the Russian  Premiers visited here in the United States and flew in one of the Presidential Helicopters, I can’t remember the details but they decided to buy 2 H-21 Helicopters from us and 2 H-34 Helicopters from Sikorski. When their aircraft was ready they sent their Engineers here to be trained.

We had them here for twelve weeks.  They brought their own interpreter but we could not understand his English. We had an employee in the service department who spoke  Russian (Serge Tapticoff) so he was with us all the way.

The picture taken on the flight ramp in front of one of their aircraft is the Russians and the instructors responsible for their training. They are as follows, left to right, Instructors: Charles Litz, Bruce Becker, Serge Tapticoff, Charles Kessler, Vertol Pilot  Bill Coffee, Russian Pilot Yuri, 3 Russian engineers. 

The next to last on the right was in charge, we referred to him as Papa Bear. I don’t remember the Russian  names.  I do remember the Russian  pilots first name Yuri, he was later killed doing a test flight on a fixed wing airplane in Russia.

Prior to their visit we were briefed  by our CIA that they would be seeking information on other projects we were working on. We were always to answer their questions, but don’t tell them the truth, lie to them.

We had to take turns entertaining them.  I took them to our home for a visit, it was very interesting for them to see our house.  They found it hard to believe that we had our own heating plant among other things.  One of my friends is on the School Board so we arranged for them to visit the new High School, and dinner at a local restaurant.

We got into some interesting discussions, they asked “who owns Vertol” we explained that the stock holders own it and that you couldn’t do that in Russia. They thought differently. When they came back after lunch they didn’t shake hands as was the custom, I think they were mad at us.

We had to get permission for them to go out of the immediate area. They liked to go to the Jersey Shore and that was approved for awhile, but it was October, they were going in the ocean and drawing a crowd.  Immigration said to stop.

The aircraft were delivered and they did  not want a Tech Rep , but a couple of years later we were able to send Serge over there for visit. He only found one of the helicopters and it was torn apart.  He couldn’t find out anything about the other H-21.

We think they were just looking for some new technology.  

Charles Kessler is a retired flight test engineer for Boeing’s Vertol helicopter division (formerly Piasecki Helicopter Co.). He joined Piesecki in 1947, in the company’s fourth year, and retired from Boeing in 1983. During his 37-year career he took part in the testing of prototypes and alterations of such models as the CH-47 Chinook and Sea Knight, the H-16, HRP-2, and the V-107. He taught the stability augmentation system to the German Luftwaffe. He has written about his experience in a blog called “Early Helicopter Years,” which can be found at http://helicopterstory.blogspot.com/.