22. BILL COFFEE

Bill was the all around nice guy pilot who did demonstrations and training all over the world. I had access to two, not very good pictures, of Bill that I had to include in this book. 

He was originally a Tennessee farm boy with a desire to fly.  He became a Coast Guard pilot and flew about every thing they had. When he got out of the Coast Guard he returned to the farm and that is when the top picture was taken. 

He joined Piasecki Helicopter as Employee No. 375, I was No. 319. The lower picture was taken a few years later in the cockpit of an HUP.

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/.