INTRODUCTION

Boeing Vertol rolls out the H-16 helicopter, the largest copter, center, at Philadelphia International Airport. A Navy HUP-1 is in the foreground. In the background, taking off, is an H-21.

By Charles Kessler

I had just returned from Japan and been discharged from the Air Force after five years of service, the last with an emergency rescue squadron, when I joined Piasecki Helicopter Corp. as a flight test engineer in October 1947.

Frank Piasecki had formed the company in Morton, Pa., and had built the factory. The PV-2 had completed flying, the HRP Dogship had been built and test flown, when I became employee #319.

Little did I realize at that time that I would witness and be a part of helicopter development for the next 37 years.

From left, Ken Meenan, Elliot Daland, Frank Piasecki, 
D. Myers, F. Mamrol, W. Schwartz.

I have a lot of memories of unusual things that happened, some good, some not so good. At my age (88*) these memories are a little hard to remember, so I’m going to record some of these events. I have photos of some, which I will include.

I’m not going to attempt  to record the history of the company, since this was nicely accomplished in the book “The Golden Years” which was published in the year 2000.

I will only deal with incidents where I was personally involved.  In the beginning I will include some  photos of things that occurred before  my time, since I saved them all these years.

Charles Kessler

This material was written in 2007, at the age of 83.

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/.