Harold Warren “Hal” Symes, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Retired)
September 30, 1924 – October 08, 2023

Harold Warren “Hal” Symes, born Sept. 30, 1924, in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, passed away Oct. 8, 2023, at 99 years old. Those 99 years included many, many hours of Hal flying above the earth, first in fixed-wing aircraft, but primarily as a helicopter pilot.

Hal fulfilled early dreams of flying when he served in the U.S. Army Air Corp in pilot training during World War II, then enlisting in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Hal became a helicopter pioneer when he received helicopter flight training at Bell Aircraft Training School, just after the war, receiving his helicopter pilot certificate (number 22) in April 1947. During 15 years in the U.S.A.F. Reserves Hal was a helicopter advisor at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Being a helicopter pioneer included both flying a wide variety of rotor aircraft and developing new uses for helicopters. One of Hals early experiences was helping develop new crop dusting/ spraying techniques in Argentina. Upon their arrival in Argentina, Hal and other pilots soon learned the 25-year-old aerial spraying program in place – spraying locusts while in flight – was futile. They developed a new eradication program which included flying by dawn so they could spray the cold, wet locusts while they were on the ground.

Another early helicopter project took place in California with Hal working the first U.S. Forest Service contract to spot forest fires, then transport firefighters and their equipment to the remote fire sites.

During the 1950’s, Hal worked for what became Chicago Helicopter Airways at Midway Airport, initially helping establish scheduled air mail routes, flying Bell 47’s. Later passenger routes were also developed using Sikorsky S-55’s and S-588’s. In 1957 Hal was honored by the industry for being the first pilot-in-command, surpassing a 10,000-hour accident-free flying record.

In 1966 Hal joined Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation as a test pilot. While with Sikorsky, Hal logged a total of 29.2 pilot-in-command hours in 12 different types of Sikorsky helicopters within one month.

The end of the Vietnam War – often termed the helicopter war – saw military helicopter contracts and associated test pilot programs plummet dramatically. During that time, Hal moved from being an active pilot to, instead, taking on the challenge of marketing helicopters/helicopter services.

He was employed at Bell Helicopter as their New England Region Marketing Manager. The Bell Jet Ranger was being developed at that time and in 1969 Hal became involved in developing another use for helicopters. The physician-in-chief at Kennedy Memorial Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Gerald Looney, envisioned using helicopters to transport emergency medical personnel to accident scenes and then to transport patients to medical facilities. Looney and Hal, in 1970, established the first national symposium on Air Mobility in Community Services in Boston which had over 250 doctors and hospital administrators attending. By late 1970’s, Boston and the New Hampshire area had seen construction of 11 new heliports, five of those at hospitals.

After Hal had sent numerous heavy-lift jobs, those beyond the scope of conventional cranes, to Oregon-based Evergreen Helicopters, the company hired him to develop projects for them. Lift projects included, for example, placing heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) packages on automobile factories and other manufacturing building rooftops. Manufacturing plants often covered 25-50 acres making conventional placement methods difficult and costly. With helicopter lifts, significant cost savings were achieved by designing and fabricating one-piece HVAC units weighing 18,000 pounds, which cut on-site construction costs and eliminated piece-meal multiple crane lift efforts.

Heavy-lift helicopters were also used in placing radio communication and television broadcast towers atop skyscrapers in major metropolitan areas.

Other projects Hal produced for Evergreen included: engineering/directing placement of all the 750-foot cables used to support the roof of the Pontiac, Michigan Silverdome; designing connection and attachment points for the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada; engineering/directing twin TV tower placement atop Chicago’s Sears Building, and using the Sikorsky S-64 Sky Crane, to build miles of electric power transmission lines. Hal spent two summers directing placement of 2,000 utility towers in Sweden.

Hal later created his own company in Atlanta, Helicopter Technology Co., and continued developing lift projects. Even into retirement other companies consulted with him including Crescent Airways, which wanted to explore use of smaller helicopters for lift purposes across the southeast United States. One project included lifting bundles of cut Christmas trees at North Carolina tree farms and lifting them to shipping points for bundling and trucking to retail facilities.

Hal was predeceased by his wife, Frances, and son, Harold Burton Symes. He is survived by daughter, Julie Fraser (Donald); grandson, Samuel Burton Powell (Andromaji Babatsias Lobaton); and great-granddaughters, Maia and Vanna.

Hal was a loyal, longtime member of Nacoochee Presbyterian Church.

Hal was interred Oct. 18, 2023, at Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia, with full U.S.A.F. Honors.
White County News · Cleveland, Georgia
January 4, 2024

Published by White County News from Jan. 4 to Jan. 10, 2024.