The Belgian Air Force used Sycamores in the Congo. The first international connection between two towns via helicopter was first introduced by SABENA (according to some - jealous - British, this stands for Such A Bad Experience Never Again), which used Sikorsky's. There was a special heliport just outside Brussels, but the dream of some was to build skyscrapers like in America, and then use the roofs as a landing platform. In fact, it turned out that helicopters were quite expensive to operate. The Rotodyne seemed to be a cheaper alternative, but apparantly, it was far too noisy. If SABENA continued for some years with the helico's, it mainly was because it was good PR.
@@maxbodymass6288 I doubt there's an airline in existence which hasn't acquired a snarky nickname. On the U.S. side, I remember my dad talking about Northworst, and of course there's always good old Untied Air Lines.
"..& can fly in perfect safety should one of the 2 engines fail. Why, I remember Hamburg '43 where it was discovered that just one good British engine was found to be perfectly adequate to bash the Boche & be home in plenty of time for brekkers".
Surprised to see that the rotor attachment pin is in the head down position ! this is not good engineering practise,not mentioned here is that the Sycamore had wooden main rotors,only one example of the Sycamore still flies today based in Switzerland.
Great footage - and I only came here for the backing music ...
The Belgian Air Force used Sycamores in the Congo. The first international connection between two towns via helicopter was first introduced by SABENA (according to some - jealous - British, this stands for Such A Bad Experience Never Again), which used Sikorsky's. There was a special heliport just outside Brussels, but the dream of some was to build skyscrapers like in America, and then use the roofs as a landing platform. In fact, it turned out that helicopters were quite expensive to operate. The Rotodyne seemed to be a cheaper alternative, but apparantly, it was far too noisy. If SABENA continued for some years with the helico's, it mainly was because it was good PR.
Such A Bad Experience Never Agine yes hear that one before but from a SABENA employee !!!
@@maxbodymass6288 I doubt there's an airline in existence which hasn't acquired a snarky nickname. On the U.S. side, I remember my dad talking about Northworst, and of course there's always good old Untied Air Lines.
"..& can fly in perfect safety should one of the 2 engines fail. Why, I remember Hamburg '43 where it was discovered that just one good British engine was found to be perfectly adequate to bash the Boche & be home in plenty of time for brekkers".
Surprised to see that the rotor attachment pin is in the head down position ! this is not good engineering practise,not mentioned here is that the Sycamore had wooden main rotors,only one example of the Sycamore still flies today based in Switzerland.
Yes, I noticed that too. And it seems to hang on a line or cable. Very odd