Help identifying a helicopter

[Deleted]

First, I hope this is the right place for this question. If not, you Admin types are free to move it and tell me what a pea brain I am. LOL!

I was watching a TV show last night and saw a helicopter that really stumped me. Let me say that I spent time in the Army, but I'm not into military vehicles or aircraft of any kind. Anyway, I grabbed the remote and backed the show up and stopped it so I could look at the chopper really closely.

The show takes place in the 50s. The chopper carried USAF insignia. It had two rotors. They were NOT front and rear like a Chinook and were NOT stacked. They were side by side. They were mounted on cone or pyramid shaped supports, which were around 4' or so tall. One pitched forward slightly and one pitched reward slightly. It was a smallish helicopter capable of carrying maybe 2 or 3 people. The blades were obviously timed because they sat so closely together.

Does anybody have any idea what this thing was? I did some Internet searching, but found nothing even close. Since I'm not savvy about aircraft, I might have used the wrong terms in my search. Any help will be appreciated. It's not life or death, but I'd like to know what the little thing was. It was just so completely different from the Hueys and Chinooks that I'm familiar with it stuck out like a sore thumb on that show.

Thanks in advance!

[JCON]

Kaman HH-43 Huskie

[JCON]

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2020 15:47:16 GMT -6 JCON said:

Kaman HH-43 Huskie

That's it! That's exactly it! I thought maybe you guys on here would know what it was.

So now my question is, were those things popular? It looks so weird I can't imagine I wouldn't have noticed one somewhere along the line. I'm thinking that the only reason I've never seen one is that they didn't quite pan out for the military.

[JCON]

There were different versions some with traditional rotors and the odd looking one you saw... they were in production from the 50's to the 70's mainly as search and rescue copters for the Air Force but later in firefighting... that is about all I know on them... I only know cause I saw one a while back on a history site. I believe there is one in Tillamook Oregon at a museum there...

[JCON]

Check this out for more pics and info on all the versions: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaman_HH-43_Huskie

[Deleted]

Thanks! That's very interesting. Used by all branches except the Army. Maybe that's why I never saw one. Also interesting that they were used in Nam.

[JCON]

Glad I could help!!!

[JED]

Odd but cool looking bird

[Dukemaddog]

And yes, for those interested; there is a model of this helicopter available. I believe it is in 1/48 scale from Monogram if I recall.

[BUCKY]

Thanks to all you guys for the vast bank of knowledge here at OSM. I never saw one of these birds until now.