YF65_CH53E

OBTW, none of the CH-53E kits in both 1/72 or 1/48th do you have the original TRB present. You would have to modify the ones in the kit, or build entire new ones if you wanted to model the early 161XXX and 162XXX CH-53E's. Dan

Jakub, The composite tail blades above Andy posted a great picture of was standard on the 163XXX delivered BuNo's to both USN and USMC units. The fast way to tell is the square cut tip[s as Andy pointed out. Also the earlier TRB had Blade Inspection Modules (BIMS) installed as they had pressurized spars for rigidity. Nitrogen was used. Same as the MRB of the CH-53E. spar pressurized with nitrogen. The composite blades on the tail did away with the need for BIMs. Gy

That is IR Tape, some units put that on the window frames so the infantry could see an airplane all blacked out. We do not have illuminated cabin windows like the USAF PAVE LOWs. Also, it could be standard reflective tape on the "inside" of the windows for ship board operations incase of an aircraft going down at sea you could find your exit by seeing the reflective tape. Some squadrons did it, some MEUs did it, some did not. Again, it all depends on the combatant commanders in a specific theatre and the guidance they give as to the "normal" configuration of that particular CH-53E you happ

Jakub, The picture above is a USN MH-53E that was delivered with the "towel rack" HF antenna's from the factory. The small antenna in front of the "Shark Fin" and above the Omega is the VOR antenna. If you have Marine CH-53E's with the "Towel Rack" antenna installed in Desert Storm colors in the Gulf, I would be very very surprised. We did not start receiving those antennas until 1992-1994 with the 163XXX BuNo's delivered to mostly MCAS Tustin to HMT-302, and then HMH-462 standing down our CH-53D and taking delivery of 12 brand new block upgrade CH-53E's. 163079, 163

Jakub, I will try and answer your questions, the best I can. On the pictures of the Ugly Angels CH-53D, the "Exhaust Mufflers" Are Infrared Suppressors. "IR Suppressors". A number of CH-53D's with GE-413 engines had them installed. This was to supposedly reduce our IR heat signature to enemy IR missile threats. they were deemed very high maintenance, as well as fire hazards. They also reduced engine performance, so......we removed them for other modern advances in ASE equipment. Onto your CH-53E questions: 1. SATCOM antenna - - only installed there for

Nice one Paul!!!! ha ha ha ha

All, I have built a few dozen of the Revell 1/48th scale kits over the years. Working on the CH-53 my whole career I can say I am a "critic" of the kits offered in both 1/48th and 1/72nd. But, thats the way it is and you can build almost all the versions of this aircraft in either scale, depending on what you are willing to kit bash to get there. The major drawback for the USAF rotorheads, is the Revell kit does not have the "early" tip tanks, nor do they include the struts to do early HH-53B's. You can build a pretty nice YCH-53A, (remove the elephant ears, or dorsal

Great looking H-34 Sir. The figures really make the build pop. Nicely done. Dan

PHROGS FOREVER!! Nicely done, I just added two 1/48's to the build stash. Going to do one in "Evil Eye" HMM-163(REIN) during my 11th MEU deployment to Somalia, the other a "Side Flair" HC-11 bird. Great models!! Gunny Dan

Absolutely STUNNING! this ol Gunny is a happy camper!! Where were these when I was finishing this one below.....Oh well guess I will have to do another one.....!!

Mike, Andy, Indeed when HMT-302 Tail code UT transitioned to New River North Carolina from then closing Santa Ana CA, MCAS Tustin. The Navy and Marines tried to put all of the RAG CH-53 students through one command to save flight hours and costs. So YES, there were Navy MH-53E's that were in dark gull gray with light ghost gray USMC markings, specifically those of HMT-302, with tail code UT as I said earlier. They spent a few years together as a Blue/Green training command, then they transitioned back the MH-53E training to Norfolk. Along with all of the AMCM missions and school

Mr. Boyer, Over on the "Research Thread" is the H-53 reference page it has some good information on the differences between the various Type/Model/Series H-53's, USN, USMC and USAF. Here is a quick shot from one of the posts. Andy, According to my records with Sikorsky, the USAF did have (20) CH-53C's, that were not delivered with AR probes. However, you can see the probe caps on these CH-53C's are installed. But many times both USAF and USMC/Navy crews could pull the AR probe very quickly for ship board operations. However like you stated the aux tanks

Andy, I think that would be an excellent subject and one I would model for my overall fleet of 53's I am building in 1/72nd scale, more room and easily I can model multiple aircraft. But, don't get me wrong, anything done in 1/48th both USAF and USN/USMC I will be buying!! r/Gunny

Kursad, Yes I see the free .pdf, sorry I did not include that. Great resource! Yes, it covers minimally the SEA introduction of the H-53's. Some good info in there though. Not a lot of reference photos as it is a lot of text. I am not up on USAF H-53's like I should be, there are a lot better guys with Dutch, Andy etc. There is some great stills of the HH-53C from the movie "Airport 75'". Where the 53 sends a pilot into the cockpit of a flying 747.....pretty cool scenes, one of the USAF FE's I flew with knew all the guys in the super jolly that did the movie....cra

One of the best resources I have seen in a long long time for USAF H-53's of all T/M/S is the book: "On a Steel Horse I Ride" it is available on Amazon, ebay etc...

Kursad, the RH-53 marking look fantastic. Are you doing both hi-vis and low vis markings for the USMC 53’s? In other words I know you are doing a set of the engine gray markings for the USMC RH’s, but are you doing a USMC high gloss white markings? As well as a set of black markings so flat green or tri color cami birds can be done? The only way to do these as of now is to kit bash the Academy CH-53E, which at over $225 a pop hurts, or try and find old micro scale sheets off the greed bay, and pray they don’t fall apart in the water bowl……… As I am sure you are well a

Yes. This was done both at Stratfort CT as well as NAS Pax River. Proof of concept if the 53 could fly with three blades following battle damage. As you can see the answer is yes. However these blades are true 53D blades. They saw service on the Marine 53Ds only at the 53D’s end of life tours. The Marine Cor-s decided to use them only for the 53E and not retro grade the fleet to one blade for both type model series. Big mistake as we needed the blades later in her life cycle anyways.

No the actual dimensions of the CH-53E and CH-53K are extremely close to one another. The cabin is wider, but there are no bat wings and external sponsons to remove from the CH-53K to slide into a C-17. the C-17 load ex is actually very smooth for the CH-53K. The width of the cabin on the CH-53K was carefully modeled and test fitted 100's of times in both C-5 and C-17. The CH-53K program team laser mapped the inside of both C-5 and C-17 during the design phase of the CH-53K. Ensuring smooth air transportability of the finalized design. When we conducted the C-5 Load Ex and th

Dutch, ooh rah devil dog!! I remember fondly breaking down for Desert Shield, we broke down at MCAS El Toro. what a nightmare, we didn't have C-5 breakdown boxes or anything, thank god we some SNCO's that has been to factory training to break em down. Learning curve was high, but by the 8th 53 we had it down. QCU's palletized on 463L pallets was the way to go!! Then cargo strap the sponsons and load the back with everything else. Good fun.

Andy, you are correct differing W&B points for the CH/MH-53E's than the Deltas. The actual weighing of the aircraft does not occur that regularly if at all in the fleet. It normally happens at the factory and at the depots when the aircraft goes in for overhaul/repair/battle damage repair. But those stencils "should" be in place as to properly weigh the aircraft especially when breaking it down for a C-5 or C-17 load-ex. The USAF is kinda picky that way. 😉 As far as the blades are concerned yes the Navy departed from the Marine Corps on the upper surfaces of the blades whe

Kursad, I hope I could help. I know some of the pics did not show on the site here with the resolution I had hoped for. But between Jakub, Andy, and myself I know we have high resolution pics we can email. But, it sounds like you have what you need. Very excited to see these. The former CO Col Rick Mullen has already asked me to build him an RH-53D in 1/48th from the Revell offering, so I will be buying a few sheets (Like 10-15 😆). Thanks again for all you do to further our hobby!! Pics below: Sooo much art and so little time, soooo many 53's to mo

Some RH-53D stenciling with the engine gray gloss finish.

More examples

More examples of stencil data.

These number refer to water line and butt line, or frame numbers for referencing locations on the helicopter. they are also there for weight and balance information when weighing the helicopter as to set the level on the jacks for correct CG for computing W&B. The forward UHF antenna has the circle around it. It is a no step circle as well as no placement of other electronic equipment as it is a pretty powerful UHF antenna. It is on all high gloss CH-53A/D's RH-53A/D's. It varies on the low vis gray/gray paint schemes, but for the most part the stencil is always present.