Some Pics from Army Flight Test...

[Loach Driver]

Do you have these pics, Kevin? I somehow missed these a few days ago. I'm not sure if they are of much use. Neither H-3 appears to be fitted with the MARS gear.

 

LD.

 

 

Edited June 22, 2025 by Loach Driver

[Loach Driver]

Found some more stuff.

 

LD.

 

 

[NRALIFR]

LD-

The first pic is of 39690, which was in fact a MARS bird. They didn’t always leave the catch poles hanging out the back after a drone catch. 
 

But, the absence of a rear loading ramp, the way the drone is suspended from a single line, and the slight bulge visible on the bottom hull around where the cable is going through the bottom identified it to me as a MARS bird. 
 

All the MARS birds had a ~2 ft x 2ft well through the bottom of the aircraft that had a fairlead roller at the bottom and top of the well to guide the cable up to the MARS winch inside the cabin. The bottom of the well also had a rounded bulge around the edges to ease the contours so there were no sharp edges for the chute or rigging to catch on as it was all reeled in after a catch. 
 

The MARS birds I worked on at Tyndall also had an angled deflector plate in front of the nose wheel well, since the nose wheels hang out of the well a bit when fully retracted. 
 

 

The second picture is of a standard CH-3C using its belly-sling to lift the drone. Note that the belly sling is attached to four hard-points at the outer edges of the bottom hull. Unfortunately, I can’t make out the tail number on it. 
 

Thanks for posting those!

 

Kevin

[NRALIFR]

17 minutes ago, Loach Driver said:

Found some more stuff.

 

LD.

Awesome!
Those are all new to me except for the third one. 

Thank you for posting those!

 

Kevin

[Loach Driver]

I knew I had a few pictures of HH-3s with drones but it took a while to find them. No serials on show so not massively useful. Thanks.

 

LD.

 

[NRALIFR]

11 hours ago, BWDenver said:

Send me a message and I'll forward it.  I came across the images when I was researching Firebee drones.  A large number of drones had a ground impact cushion that popped out of the bottom of the drone.  A lot of the recovery's were after it landed, but the SH-3's clearly had the equipment installed at Holloman AFB.   the 147's were tested at Holloman, and the birds destined to fly over Viet Nam appear to be MARS recovered.

 

The images came from the Ryan files that were dumped to the San Diago Aviation Museum archies, online with Flicker.  I went through thousands of images to sift through and find info on the 147 Drones.

 

Regards,

 

Bryan

Ahhh, I get it now. I initially thought these were perhaps from your personal collection. But if I understand correctly, they are all from the Ryan files that can be accessed from the SDAM website, correct? If that’s the case I can just pass along a link to the Sullenberger museum staff., and include some of the images you posted. That’s perfect actually. 
 

I spent just a very few minutes doing some simple searching the archives myself, and one of the first links I got was to a YouTube video that IMHO is one of the best video descriptions of the MARS program I have ever seen. Despite the fact that the helicopter being used was older than the H-3, and the MARS winch was probably two generations earlier than the one I was familiar with, the rigging and procedures were virtually identical.
 

Here’s a link to the video for anyone who’s curious. It starts out a little slow, but it really got interesting to me at about the 1:30 mark. The camera angles, stability, and the slow-mo sequences are better than any of the in-flight videos I’ve seen before. The narration is very good as well, and delivers a lot of interesting information about the program. The parachute shop that prepared the drone chutes was in the hangar I worked in at Tyndall, and the opening scene of the video looked very familiar to me. 

 

F 1253 Ryan Aeronautical Firebee Mars Midair Retrieval

 

Thank you Bryan!

[NRALIFR]

11 hours ago, BWDenver said:

Send me a message and I'll forward it.  I came across the images when I was researching Firebee drones.  A large number of drones had a ground impact cushion that popped out of the bottom of the drone.  A lot of the recovery's were after it landed, but the SH-3's clearly had the equipment installed at Holloman AFB.   the 147's were tested at Holloman, and the birds destined to fly over Viet Nam appear to be MARS recovered.

 

The images came from the Ryan files that were dumped to the San Diago Aviation Museum archies, online with Flicker.  I went through thousands of images to sift through and find info on the 147 Drones.

 

Regards,

 

Bryan

Ahhh, I get it now. I initially thought these were perhaps from your personal collection. But if I understand correctly, they are all from the Ryan files that can be accessed from the SDAM website, correct? If that’s the case I can just pass along a link to the Sullenberger museum staff., and include some of the images you posted. That’s perfect actually. 
 

I spent just a very few minutes doing some simple searching the archives myself, and one of the first links I got was to a YouTube video that IMHO is one of the best video descriptions of the MARS program I have ever seen. Despite the fact that the helicopter being used was older than the H-3, and the MARS winch was probably two generations earlier than the one I was familiar with, the rigging and procedures were virtually identical.
 

Here’s a link to the video for anyone who’s curious. It starts out a little slow, but it really got interesting to me at about the 1:30 mark. The camera angles, stability, and the slow-mo sequences are better than any of the in-flight videos I’ve seen before. The narration is very good as well, and delivers a lot of interesting information about the program. The parachute shop that prepared the drone chutes was in the hangar I worked in at Tyndall, and the opening scene of the video looked very familiar to me. 

 

F 1253 Ryan Aeronautical Firebee Mars Midair Retrieval

 

Thank you Bryan!

[Loach Driver]

A few more that might be drone recovery H-3s. Two from Davis Monthan in 1979 and 12800 in service with the 39th ARRS in 1984, location unknown.

 

LD.

Edited June 27, 2025 by Loach Driver

[NRALIFR]

On 6/27/2025 at 8:28 AM, Loach Driver said:

A few more that might be drone recovery H-3s. Two from Davis Monthan in 1979 and 12800 in service with the 39th ARRS in 1984, location unknown.

 Thank you LD!
 

Those are in fact all MARS drone recovery birds. On the two from DM, you can clearly see the fairlead “bulge” in the center of the bottom hull. Like the helicopter and MARS winch, the fairlead bulge design changed over the years and became bigger than the earlier generations. You can also see the nose wheel deflector plate on both of them. 
 

The picture of 12800 is actually taken at Tyndall AFB, FL where I was assigned for almost 4 years. Detachment 5, 39th ARRS. When I was just a newbie fresh out of helicopter tech school in 1978, I was first assigned to the four-person maintenance crew of that very helicopter. I remember the crew chief fondly, and one of the other two maintenance crew members is a close friend to this day. If I remember correctly, Det. 5 had four MARS CH-3E’s, and four SAR HH-3E’s. There were about 45-50 maintenance personnel including the senior NCO’s, and about 20-25 pilots and flight engineers. 
 

That picture was taken after I was discharged. I know that because when I left Tyndall, 800 was in the middle of a “phase inspection” that had it out of service for a few months. I knew it was going to get repainted in camouflage after the inspection was completed as well. It was painted in the light blue-grey scheme the whole time I worked on it. I’ve only ever seen pictures of it in camo. 
 

The hangar in the background is hangar 5, the largest hangar on the base at that time. It also got a paint job shortly before I left. It looked a lot better after painting than it did before.  Unfortunately, hangar 5 and the Det. 5 “Jolly Green” flight operations building next door were damaged so badly by hurricane Michael in 2018 that they both had to be demolished. There’s nothing left of them now.

 

Thank you again LD!

 

Kevin

Edited July 3, 2025 by NRALIFR
Correcting some dates. Changing some grammar.

[MusashiWRX]

On 1/9/2013 at 10:24 PM, Rigid Rotorhead said:

Regarding the HH-60D...

Ray, the shot you posted above depicts an Army MH-60K, so yes, it's a different beast altogether than the Air Force HH-60D, though there are a lot of common features.

Austin, the shot you found of an Air Force helo flying among desert terrain is actually the exact same airframe as the other shots; it was just prior to receiving the full external modifications (Terrain-Following/Terrain-Avoidance [TF/TA] radar, FLIR, etc.). Also, as you observed, the FLIR is indeed offset to the left side of the nose.

I'm really glad to see an interest here on the HH-60D, as I have been gathering information/photos on it for awhile now. My intent is to write an article either on the Night Hawk itself, or to write one on the evolution of the HH-60G Pave Hawk, which must of course include the Night Hawk since the former was born from the eventual cancellation of the latter.

Originally, the HH-60D was intended to be a sort of "mini-Pave Low", complete with all the bells and whistles. Along with the TF/TA radar, this included a helmet-mounted display which was pretty much the IHADSS system used in the AH-64 Apache. However, as the program cost ballooned, the Air Force restructured their plans and decided to instead build a fewer number of HH-60Ds, while also fielding the HH-60E, a less expensive, less capable variant without the TF/TA radar, FLIR, or helmet-mounted display. Ultimately, and sadly, neither of the two were produced, as the cost had gone completely out of control. Starting over, the HH-60G was born.

One area in which I am unclear is when the HH-60A designation came into play. I believe it was the designation for the 10 UH-60As that the Air Force bought off-the-shelf in order to train its Night Hawk pilots. When the Night Hawk was canceled, the A-models were converted to HH-60Gs.

If anyone else has more info, I'd welcome it!

Hope this helps...

Did any of these articles ever get written? I'm interested, and have photos. I'm the son of one of two HH-60D CTF Directors. Would love to read about it!  - dead thread resurrection

 

[Loach Driver]

I'm not sure if those articles have been written yet but I too would love to read them. Please post up your photos here if possible. There aren't too many out there on the HH-60D so any new ones would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

LD.

[MusashiWRX]

On 8/31/2025 at 4:15 PM, Loach Driver said:

I'm not sure if those articles have been written yet but I too would love to read them. Please post up your photos here if possible. There aren't too many out there on the HH-60D so any new ones would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

LD.

I'll try to scan some in soon and share. 
I also have a CRAZY video thats a bit of a very worn 80's VHS tape of the HH-60D program (At the start it was called HH-60A until changed to D. Same aircraft). Its pure 80's marketing cheese.. but the Beginning is GREAT.
It starts off with a reel of failing to mate up for refueling with the lone ranger theme song. Then Some other hovering and stuff, then some "Promotional marketing Video" with classic 80's voiceover. And some in cockpit stuff. Truly Enjoyable if you are into that sort of thing.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wvN85amq96z7VB6EftF8cJ9Nl5YJhR30/view?usp=sharing
 

Edited September 2, 2025 by MusashiWRX

[andyf117]

6 hours ago, MusashiWRX said:

I'll try to scan some in soon and share. 
I also have a CRAZY video thats a bit of a very worn 80's VHS tape of the HH-60D program (At the start it was called HH-60A until changed to D. Same aircraft). Its pure 80's marketing cheese.. but the Beginning is GREAT.
It starts off with a reel of failing to mate up for refueling with the lone ranger theme song. Then Some other hovering and stuff, then some "Promotional marketing Video" with classic 80's voiceover. And some in cockpit stuff. Truly Enjoyable if you are into that sort of thing.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wvN85amq96z7VB6EftF8cJ9Nl5YJhR30/view?usp=sharing
 

Very cool video compilation - thanks for sharing! 

Not sure if these pics of 23718 in original HH-60A configuration (as depicted by the Hasegawa kit) have been posted previously in this (or another) thread - a lot of photos here have gone MIA - but in case they haven't, or were but are now 'missing': 

Edited September 2, 2025 by andyf117

[andyf117]

And in re-designated HH-60D configuration, with nose-mounted radar and FLIR fitments: 

[MusashiWRX]

Those photos are awesome. I found some of them in internet searches as well. Mine are more 'snapshots except a couple. The ARC system won't let me upload today. odd.

 

[MusashiWRX]

On 9/4/2025 at 9:22 AM, MusashiWRX said:

Those photos are awesome. I found some of them in internet searches as well. Mine are more 'snapshots except a couple. The ARC system won't let me upload today. odd. 

 

Turns out my photos were just too large.


 

 

Edited September 7, 2025 by MusashiWRX

[drt786]

Wow, check out that behemoth flight test instrumentation rack in the back! Would be a hell of a scratch-build opportunity 

[Loach Driver]

Thanks for sharing these photos. Great to see something new on this rare version of the H-60.

 

LD.

[Rob de Bie]

On 6/22/2025 at 4:35 AM, NRALIFR said:

Here’s a link to the video for anyone who’s curious. It starts out a little slow, but it really got interesting to me at about the 1:30 mark. The camera angles, stability, and the slow-mo sequences are better than any of the in-flight videos I’ve seen before. The narration is very good as well, and delivers a lot of interesting information about the program. The parachute shop that prepared the drone chutes was in the hangar I worked in at Tyndall, and the opening scene of the video looked very familiar to me.

 

I have a  listing of 200+ Teledyne-Ryan films on my AQM-34 website, that the San Diego Air and Space museum put on YouTube. I made the selectiion, listing all videos that  show some aspect of MARS recoveries.

 

F-0528 Ryan Firebee Missile Retrieval - launch, MARS retrieval, BGM-34A at the end?

F-1174 Ryan Aeronautical Firebee Drone 34A and 34E on DP2E - Firebee II: CH-53 MARS, manufacturing, in-flight, on pylon

F-1253 Ryan Aeronautical Firebee Mars Midair Retrieval

F-1346 Ryan Aeronautical William Tell 58, 59, 61 - with 147A recovery at 21:12, continuation of F-2817

F-1423 Ryan Aeronautical Model 234A - two ground-filmed BGM-34A missions, one including MARS, pylon mounting

F-1758 Ryan Model 234 BGM-34 Hobo & Maverick weapons system - BGM-34A Maverick loading, target hit, mission footage, MARS

F-1780 Ryan Mars mid-air retrieval system, Lockheed C-130 and Firebee Drone - tests with CH-37 and CH-3

F-1854 Ryan AQM 34A Drone first flight launch - flight - MARS 5/13/1976 - AQM-34V in first flight, launch, parachute

F-1929 Ryan Model 234 Firebee Drone RPV Footage and C-130 - MARS, DC-130, Shrike on pylon

F-1933 Ryan Model 234 Firebee Drone RPV - bits and pieces: MARS, shop testing, ground filmed mission

F-2324 Ryan model 147 TE/TF at OL OA AFB April 1973 - OL OA = Osan Korea. Model 147TE and TF, MARS recovery, CH-3s, DC-130 take-off, ground control, drone pre-flighting, Osan city, another two MARSs, DC-130 cockpit

F-2348 Nobody's Perfect..Accident B-Roll from Ryan - short MARS clip, bare metal DC-130A 496

F-2817 Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave and Ryan RPV - CH-37 trying MARS on Q-2C and Model 147A (@10:30). Continued in F-1346 @21:12

 

Have fun!

 

Rob

[NRALIFR]

Thanks Rob, I appreciate you providing links to those videos. Those are quite interesting. 
 

I have to admit that prior to posting on this forum, I wasn’t aware that the CH-37 was ever used for MARS missions. Those were way before my time in the USAF. Learning about the earliest years of mid-air retrieval has been fascinating. 
 

Cheers!

 

Kevin

[Dutch]

A little MARS history from the Sikorsky Historical Archives here: https://sikorskyarchives.com/wp-content/uploads/archives-newsletters/NEWS-2021-01.pdf

[NRALIFR]

On 9/5/2025 at 9:18 AM, Rob de Bie said:

I have a  listing of 200+ Teledyne-Ryan films on my AQM-34 website,

Rob,

I’ve been enjoying reviewing the AQM-34 section of your homepage.  I noticed in the serial listing on the MARS-equiped CH-3E page another tail number I recognized. 66-13285 was at Tyndall AFB when I arrived there in 1978. I also remember it being transferred to Keflavik Iceland in about 1979. I actually have a few pictures of 285 that I took at an on-base air show. 

 

285 was one of the HH-3E rescue helicopters we had. It was never a MARS bird as far as I know. 

 

The guy in civilian clothes was a maintenance buddy of mine. We were off-duty at the time. The guy in the red beret was a PJ assigned to our Detachment. 

 

The guy in the flight suit was one of our pilots. 

 

This last one is obviously taken by someone else while I was there. It’s sitting outside Hangar 5, next to the flight operations building. 
 

 

Kevin

Edited September 6, 2025 by NRALIFR

[NRALIFR]

1 hour ago, Dutch said:

A little MARS history from the Sikorsky Historical Archives here: https://sikorskyarchives.com/wp-content/uploads/archives-newsletters/NEWS-2021-01.pdf

Great article, Dutch!

 

Thanks!

 

Kevin

[MusashiWRX]

On 9/4/2025 at 2:50 PM, drt786 said:

Wow, check out that behemoth flight test instrumentation rack in the back! Would be a hell of a scratch-build opportunity 

 

I have thought of doing exactly that scratchbuild but I have only these photos of what it looked like. It'd be pretty much all guesswork!

I went and added more pictures into my old post so that i don't 'hide' the H-3 Pics.

Those are pretty amazing as well! My dad had hundreds of Hours in H-3s as well. I really enjoyed seeing the one at the USAF Museum in Ohio up close.

Edited September 7, 2025 by MusashiWRX

[BWDenver]

JOH-58C/OH-58X Surrogate S/N 70-15349.  Tests for the LCH  were conducted between from June 27 to 23 October 1985.  This shot was taken at Fort hunter Liggett near the California coast.  The aim was to test stability between the OH-58C and the JOH-58C with a SAS system.

 

49 flights were conducted to accumulate 34.6 “productive” hours.  Overall the deficiencies of the OH-58C were improved with the SAS system and the incorporation of the 206L-3 65” tail rotor.  In order to not hit the main rotor blades the Tip Caps were reduced by 1.5” on each.

 

The FLIR was located on the RH side of the cabin top, Direct view Optics on the left.  The Avionics were installed on a slide in/out pallet in the avionics battery bay on the left side of the aircraft under the engine.

 

However another aircraft was configured as the OH-58X in addition to S/N 70-15349, the second aircraft was 71-21088.  The two aircraft were tested at Fort Hunter Liggett CA.  Hunter Liggett is a facility tucked into the mountains south of Monterey CA, into a valley.  It is a testing base used to test and evaluate tactics and equipment. 

 

When I spent two weeks at Hunter Ligget in the late 70’s it was rumored that there were several Soviet “fishing vessels” just outside of US territorial waters.  The test I was associated with was stalled because of significant rail where we sunk a tank into the mud.

 

Image was part of the Rucker Test board negatives Ray Wilhite gave me to scan.