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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/.
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