U.S. Coast Guard Demonstrates Air-Sea Rescue with a Sikorsky HNS-1

 

Commander Frank Erickson, U.S. Coast Guard, demonstrates air-sea rescue with a Sikorsky HNS-1 helicopter operating from Floyd Bennett Field, 1944/45. The Sikorsky R-4 is a two-seat helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky with a single, three-bladed main rotor and powered by a radial engine. The R-4 was the world's first large-scale mass-produced helicopter and the first helicopter used by the United States Army Air Forces, the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. In U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard service, the helicopter was known as the Sikorsky HNS-1. In British service it was known as the Hoverfly.

Source :
From the collection of the National Air and Space Museum Archives, XRA-1205
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_R-4
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936