Sikorsky YH-19
date: label: Date
content: 1949
name: label: Manufacturer
content: Sikorsky Aircraft Company
notes: label: Summary
content: The YH-19 was the first practical single-rotor utility helicopter. The first in Sikorsky's successful S-55 series, it solved the center-of-gravity problems of earlier models by shifting the engine to the front and the passenger compartment to beneath the rotor hub. Other innovations included offset-flapping hinges and hydraulically boosted irreversible controls. Designed for the Air Force for arctic rescue, the S-55 served all U.S. military branches throughout the 1950s, especially during the Korean War and in most major military conflicts of the early Cold War. Civilian versions pioneered helicopter airline service in the United States and abroad.
label: Summary
content: This is the first S-55. From its first test flight in 1949, it served mainly at the Sikorsky factory demonstrating improvements to the series and generating flight data. Fred Clark of Orlando Helicopter Airways restored it in 1966 for commercial use. Thirty years later he returned it to its original military configuration.
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
label: Location
content: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA
label: Exhibit Station
content: Commercial Aviation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Nancy and Fred Clark Family.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A20060523000
objectType: label: Type
content: CRAFT-Rotary Wing
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Dimensions
content: Rotor diameter: 16.1 m (53 ft)
label: Dimensions
content: Length: 12.7 m (41 ft 8.5 in)
label: Dimensions
content: Height: 4.5 m (14 ft 8 in)
label: Dimensions
content: Weight, empty: 2,237 kg (4,931 lb)
label: Dimensions
content: Weight, gross: 3,085 kg (7,200 lb)