Unusual Configurations

This section contains those rare or unusual helicopter related phenomena such as unusual configuration, paint scheme, or other configuration or usage to include testing. If any one has additional information please contact us.

CH-3E Black Mariah CH-3E Black Mariah CH-3E Black Mariah CH-3E Black Mariah

Air Force Museum Photos

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is often listed as one of the most haunted places in the Dayton area, and in the entire state of Ohio. Sensitive's and psychics who visit The National Museum of the United States Air Force often claim to feel an unsettling presence, a feeling of helplessness and depression, or see the ghosts wandering through the museum. Even those without psychic abilities have been known to see ghosts, or experience overwhelming feelings inside.

There are very few places in The National Museum of the United States Air Force where activity doesn't occur, but some areas are known to have more ghostly activity than others.

The CH-3E #63-09676 "Black Mariah" was a aircraft used during the Vietnam War. She was used to rescue soldiers, and was used in many top secret missions. The body is covered with bullet holes, and there's no way of knowing exactly how many people died inside. Visitors to the Air Force Museum sometimes hear voices and moans from inside, said to be coming from the soldiers who died there.


H-3 #63-09676 Shark Teeth   H-3 #63-09676

Bigmouth was with the 302nd ARRS at Luke in the 1980s. Wayne Mutza

I dug thru my stash of ole H-3 pictures and found pictures of 63-09676 with the same shark mouth sheet tucked in the nose compartment door. I also talked to my boss (Henry Shaw) today and he reminded me that, besides the sheet, the shark mouth was also painted on the nose door using water colors around 1987 or 1988 on 63-09676 when the 302nd SOS relocated here at Davis Monthan AFB, AZ. and became the 71st SOS, and the aircraft was flown with it painted on. The pilot was Lt. Col. Jon Hannon, an ole H-3 rescue pilot, and our commander at the time.

(Chuck Ruth)


00960001  63-09676

Pictures of 63-09676 shortly after being gained at Luke, notice the gray paint peeling off of the leading edge of the sponsons.

(Chuck Ruth)


Location Years

20th Heli Sql Udorn RTAFB, Thailand

21st SOS, Nakhon Phanom RTAFB, Thailand

56th SPOPSW, Nakhon Phanom RTAFB, Thailand

6200th ABW, Clark AB, RP

405th FW, Clark AB, RP

302nd SOS, Luke AFB, AZ

304th ARRS, Portland IAP, OR

71st SOS, Davis Monthan AFB, AZ

  • C/C TSgt Henry Shaw
  • Last C/C TSgt Doug Lesho

Helo left for National Museum of the USAF

National Museum of the United States Air Force

June 15, 1966 - 1969

1969 - 1970

1970 - 1971

1971 - 1974

1974 - 1976

March 31, 1976 - 1986

December 30, 1986 - 1987

October 1987 - February 02, 1991

February 15, 1991

February 19, 1991


According to George Martin (one of the CH-3C pilots) this helicopter, CH-3C 63-09676, made the second combat rescue of the Vietnam War while it was assigned to Air Rescue. This aircraft was one of the first two CH-3C's that were sent from TAC to NKP as an interim. One of the birds, 63-09685 was shot down on 6 November 1965. Three of the crew members became POW's and the fourth (the FE) was able to E & E and was later rescued. See the POW page for details.

CH-3C 63-09676 was painted flat black to determine the color feasibility for the mission. It soon was given the nickname of "Black Mariah", the Night Wind. It was the only black H-3 to serve in SEA and is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH.


(Courtesy of Jim Henthorn from the history of the 20th)

According to the Squadron History the paint scheme was supposed to make it harder to see at night. It was painted this way for the two attempted night infiltrations. The infiltrations were deemed too hazardous and stopped.

The 20th SOS conducted one night infiltration and one night ex-filtration, details of which are highly classified. The crewmembers concluded after the missions that night missions were so hazardous that unless a dire emergency existed, operations of this nature were not worth the potential loss of men and machines.

The infiltration was unsuccessful, largely due to a lack of light. The ex-filtration was conducted with the assistance of two “Moonlight” flare ships and was successful. However, lighted missions are particularly dangerous. Operations conducted under flares can be observed by the enemy several kilometers away, eliminating the element of surprise and subjecting the operation to ground fire.

Note: Anyone having further information please contact us.
(We are still attempting to determine when and where the aircraft was first painted black)


(Courtesy of Jerry Clausius from his personal recollection of the 20th)

I was with the 20th SOS "Pony Express" 66-67 crewing and flying 63-09676. I was with John Coleman as flight mechanic and crew chief on the ACFT.

I have seen questions as why the ACFT was painted black. I was told by MSgt Leroy Diggs who helped bring it over from the states that when it arrived from the states it was painted olive drab green with all the required markings, and they were told to get the markings off. The only paint they had was flat black so it was painted with paint brushes to cover all the markings and get rid of the olive drab paint. When I had it at Udorn it was getting to look real bad. There was an Air Force W-4 Warrant officer, Mr. Brenner, at NKP that knew the history of the ACFT and he sent a 5 gal bucket of flat black paint to Udorn to repaint it. We were told that we could not repaint it but could touch it up. So two painters from the paint shop came out to touch it up, they did a real good job of touching it up from nose to tail. Only thing we were made to do was put the warning markings on with flat red paint, this was directed by our line chief MSgt Jetter. The ACFT stayed black until it went to depot in Bangkok where it was painted with standard colors.

Sgt Coleman and I left with the ACFT stuck up on LS-98 where a crew came in to low and hit some rocks with the tail rotor. Next place I knew of it being was at Clark with the survival school before it came back to the states to a Guard or Reserve unit out west. I was really surprised when I saw it at the Museum at WPAFB. The program manager Mr. Ed Tuttle at Robins tried for years to get it in the museum because of its history.

It was one of the first H-3s into Viet Nam and one of the last to leave. It had a lot of different configurations while it was at Udorn, from stiff legs, to having one 63 and one 65 sponson on it. It went from a CH-3C to CH-3E., and we always tried to keep one white/gray topped blade on it. We flew a lot of support during the buildup of the radar site at LS-98, and pulled a lot of rescue alert at barrel city for the Jollies because they were always broke. I hope this gives a little more history of OLD Black.


(Courtesy of Doug Lawson from his 03 March 2011 email regarding CH-3C 63-09676 getting its black paint job and email traffic with Jim Mardock about it)

My name is Doug Lawson, MSgt. USAF Retired and I was assigned to NKP where CH-3C 676, the Black Mariah, was painted black.

It was not the lack of paint.

I was directed to have all insignia, etc. painted out and all lights to be disconnected to prevent inadvertently turning on a light. One of my maintenance crew decided to use Black paint and just slopped it on. When I seen what he had done I told him to paint the whole aircraft Black. It was miserably hot that day and he was very unhappy! (as was I).

I don't remember the tail number of another CH-3C, the first aircraft sent to Thai-Am for repair, but I believe it was #689. It had went down in Laos and we done some repairs and flew it out to NKP. We didn't have the capability to repair it so we trucked it to Bangkok for Thai-Am to repair.

I later went down to check on the repair because it was taking too long. While there I picked up a local English Newspaper with a front page picture of "The Black Mariah" among other CH-3's at NKP with the caption "A sister in mourning".

~ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IN EMAILS~

RotorHeads member Jim Mardock asks Doug the following; Do you recall when this happened at NKP? I was never at NKP, but know some of the guys at Udorn went up there during '66. I assume that since you were disconnecting non-essential lighting, this was in preparation of using 676 for night missions. Although, I don't think the night ops ever took place. Doug replied:

I'm sorry I don't remember the dates. I didn't deploy with the 20th. Major Lethbridge and I followed about a month later. I think we arrived in Tan Son Nhut in January. I believe in March we were sent to NKP because the pilots would not fly their missions because of an alcoholic MSgt. in charge. 676 and another aircraft were already on site. Also we were flying primarily night missions when we arrived. So it wasn't painted because we were going to fly night missions, rather that the mission tasked was extremely dangerous. I believe the aircraft was painted about June? A lot more goes with this story. 676 and the other bird was the only aircraft at NKP belonging to the 20th until after a lot of waves had been made and I got a call from Communications that I had 16 aircraft in-bound. We didn't have adequate space for this many aircraft and later we moved all operations to Udorn.


(Courtesy of Robert Davis from his 20 October 2014 & 24 October 2014 emails regarding CH-3C 63-09676 getting its black paint job)

Robert Davis commented; I was with the 20th Helicopter Squadron, RVN, Thailand on H-3's and would like to clear up where the "Black Mariah" was painted black, it was while she was at NKP. She was painted by myself and crew chief J. L. Lavana at the time with buckets of flat black paint and brushes.

USAF RotorHeads member Jim Burns asks Robert the following:
Do you recall what color CH-3C 63-09676 was painted before you and J.T. Lavana painted her black?
Was she painted olive drab, like some of the early TAC H-3's or was she silver?

Robert Davis replied; She was epoxy green (a dark green, not really a drab) and it was coming off in lots of areas.

Note: USAF RotorHeads believes the epoxy green paint was the paint scheme the early TAC H-3's had. We are looking for a good color photo of these early epoxy green H-3's.

51-3856 Thule

51-3856 Thule

This information provided by Sid Nanson which he received from a friend that worked the Sikorsky H-19/H-34 line.

                  1. The original H-19 had the straight tail cone.
                  2. Due to the main rotors striking the straight cone during high flare and hard landing, Sikorsky created the "Droop" cone.
                  3. The straight cone had the inverted "V" stabilizer.
                  4. The Droop cone had the horizontal stablizers.

Comment:

It's hard to pick a model due to mod kits that were installed. But, you are basically right, the H-19A and the H-19C were built with the straight tail cone and the H-19B & D models were built with the horizontal stabilizer. 

Note: I never personally have seen a H-19 straight cone without a stabilizer, but your photos prove otherwise.


51-3881

51-3881

In response to your inquiry relative to the horizontal stabilizer configuration on the Air force H-19s, the following data is forwarded. The stabiizer and tail cone configurations evolved over the 1949 to 1955 years as follows:

1949 straight tail cone, no stabilizer, no fin under tail cone

1950 straight tail cone, horizontal stabilizer, fin under tail cone

1955 droop tail cone, anhedral stabilizer, fin under tail cone

Aircraft were modified and may have been reconfigured at maintenance and repair facilities after production delivery.

Lee Jacobson, Archivist
Igor Sikorsky Historical Archives


51-3871

51-3871

We are sure pleased to hear that your small group of "old Air Force helicopter mechanics" are still interested in the H-19. Sounds like the past memories are keeping you all young at heart. Here is some additional data that may clear up some of their questions.

Your reference to 51 and 49 models does not identify the year of manufacturing the aircraft. The dates are fiscal year contract dates and do not define the actual delivered configuration. Manufacturing records or detail specifications usually define the actual configurations. My recollection, as of '53 when I joined Sikorsky, was that configurations varied on the production line depending on the build cycle and specifications.

During this period changes were being implemented as they were released, and they may have been incorporated in the field as retrofit. Overhaul and repair facilities could modify or retrofit changes as required. The decision would be up to the authority at the time. The '50s time period was an era of continuous development in the helicopter industry, and product improvement changes were continually being developed and released. Some aircraft were updated and some were not depending on operational requirements. I remember a General being quoted that the helicopter industry was experiencing "over developmentitis".

This is the main reason why trying to place a specific aircraft configuration relative to time in the operational environment may be difficult. Hope this answers you questions.

Lee Jacobson, Archivist
Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives


If anyone can provide information as to why these aircraft have no horizontal stabilizer please contact us.

Larson_AFB_Feb_1960

Taken at Larson AFB in Feb 1960. Courtesy of Dick Vanallen

Dick stated that SAC modified the cabin door by putting the extra windows in. These helicopters were missile site support and when transporting the missile crews the extra windows in the door helped eliminate the closed, boxed in feeling the missile crew had riding in the cabin. Apparently only a very few were modified. Dick stated there is one locked up in a building in Alaska however when he was there he was unable to see it and find out the tail number.

H-19 #49-2016

H-19 #49-2016

Photo courtesy of Sid Nanson

This H-19 is reported to have been used by the CIA in Korea.

If you have any information concerning the "Black" H-19 please contact us.

H-19 Pontoons

H-19 Pontoons

Photo courtesy of John Flournoy

If anyone has any experiences or stories of the H-19 on pontoons please contact us.

CH-3E 67-14718 AT NKP, THAILAND, 1969-1970

CH-3E 69-05811 AT BLAIR LAKES, ALASKA 1974

CH-3E 67-14718 at NKP, Thailand, 1969-1970 CH-3E 69-05811 at Blair Lakes, AK 1974

Photos courtesy of Jim Burns

HH-3E 67-14718
Delivery Date: 31-05-68
Desert Storm Veteran

Location Year

56th SPOP Wg, APO 96310

703rd TASS, Shaw AFB, SC

Field #9, Hurlbert Field, FL

302nd SOS, Luke AFB, AZ

305th ARRS, Selfridge ANGB, MI

71st SOS, DM AFB, AZ

AMARC, DM AFB, AZ

FMS to Tunisian AF

30-04-70

17-04-72/12-07-73

12-07-73/11-04-74

11-04-74/30-05-86

30-05-86/88

09-11-92

09-11-92

95

(Mar 69) Lt. Col. MacQuarrie established three projects to improve the Pony Express performance and expand their operations.

One of the projects was aimed at weight reduction of the CH-3E helicopters to provide crew members with better aircraft performance which is greatly needed with hot temperatures and high density altitudes they were required to work with.

It was determined if the helicopters had fixed landing gear instead of the retractable gear the amount of weight loss would vastly improve the overall performance of the aircraft in the disciplines they were working in.

Two kits were ordered from Sikorsky to be utilized to modify the aircraft. One kit came in with all parts complete; the other was missing parts so only one aircraft (67-14718) was converted.

Note: There was at least one H-3, 69-5811 and possibly two with fixed landing gear assigned to the 5040th in Alaska (Jim Burns). (69-5808 was the 2nd one, info provided by Bob Jones)


We do not have any records at the archives that shows H-3s delivered with fixed gear. The fixed gear must have been installed in the field by the Air Force. There was a kit for fixed gear developed for commercial S-61s similar to the S-61L. The weight penalty for retractable gear was 363 lbs.

Lee Jacobson
Sikorsky Historical Archives


Note: Anyone having further information please contact us.

H-5H 48-549

H-5H #48-549 Courtesy of Wayne Mutza

This picture has drawn quite a few questions concerning the two bubble type appendages on the side of the aircraft just behind the door and behind the landing gear attachment point.

It is believed that they were utilized for litter patients however that hasn't been confirmed. If anyone has any addition knowledge/information on this please contact us.

The Sikorsky archivist provided the following information: "The aircraft is an H-5H, 10 of these were produced. The mount (fore and aft) are indeed litter mounts. There was cabin access to the forward patient but not the aft. Also, the aft litter was mounted under a 200 amp generator, so I imagine that unless the patient was in extremis (sic) (or worse) it was rarely used. Patient insertion was from the outside."   

- From the Archives
Harry Hleva and Frank Hunter

HH-43 Missile Test-1 HH-43 Missile -2 HH-43 Missile - 3 HH-43 Missile - 4

Photos courtesy of Harvey Meltzer

This was at Eglin AFB. Our LBR shared our expertise with the proving ground center, and did things no one else could do. The crew was Bobby Overturf I think! Capt Joe Gagnon and me, Harvey. As the pictures show the missile nose assy did not fit under the 43. So we had two flat beds parked, and we hovered up onto it. Shutting down the rotors was really" SHAKEY". I mean the trailers were all over the place. I asked CE to put4X4's under the ends and that helped a lot. We then loaded the nose cone, hooked up the launch panel, and away we went. The mission was over the gulf test range, and 10K ft. Also the airspeed was required to be as close to 0 kts as we could get. When we reached the drop zone I became the launch controller. We had to coordinate with the ground camera stations and when all was set I fired of the nose cone. When it leaves us it would fall about20 feet and then 3 tiny rocket motors would unscrew the nose cone. It would then deploy a chute. The motor section would just drop. Then just after launch I dropped 3 MK 5 smokes. The AF (navy) which had a boat squadron at Eglin would recover both items. We had an H-21 from Hulbert as chase with photogs aboard. They could not get near our altitude. When the rockets fired there was plenty of smoke. They started yelling over the radio that we had an explosion!! Of course when the smoke cleared that was not the case. Big Joe Gagnon said let's see what a 10K autorotation is like!! It doesn't take as long as a powered decent. We did several more of these missions.

Sikorsky CH-3E   63-09676  "Black Mariah"

Delivery Date: 31 Dec 1963

CH-3C 63-09676 was painted flat black to determine the color feasibility for the mission. It soon was given the nickname of "Black Mariah", the Night Wind. It was the only black H-3 to serve in SEA and is now on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is often listed as one of the most haunted places in the Dayton area, and in the entire state of Ohio. Sensitive's and psychics who visit the museum often claim to feel an unsettling presence, a feeling of helplessness and depression, or see the ghosts wandering through the museum. Even those without psychic abilities have been known to see ghosts, or experience overwhelming feelings inside. There are very few places in the museum where activity doesn't occur, but some areas are known to have more ghostly activity than others.

The CH-3E 63-09676 "Black Mariah" was a aircraft used during the Vietnam War. She was used to rescue soldiers, and was used in many top secret missions. The body is covered with bullet holes, and there's no way of knowing exactly how many people died inside. Visitors to the museum sometimes hear voices and moans from inside, said to be coming from the soldiers who died there.

From Chuck Ruth:
"I dug thru my stash of ole H-3 pictures and found pictures of 63-09676 with the same shark mouth sheet tucked in the nose compartment door. I also talked to my boss (Henry Shaw) today and he reminded me that, besides the sheet, the shark mouth was also painted on the nose door using water colors around 1987 or 1988 on 63-09676 when the 302nd SOS relocated here at Davis Monthan AFB, AZ. and became the 71st SOS, and the aircraft was flown with it painted on. The pilot was Lt. Col. Jon Hannon, an ole H-3 rescue pilot, and our commander at the time."

Location                                                                                                       Years
20th Heli Sq Udorn RTAFB, Thailand                                        15 Jun 1966 - 1969

21st SOS, Nakhon Phanom RTAFB, Thailand                       1969 - 1970
56th SPOPSW, Nakhon Phanom RTAFB, Thailand          1970 - 1971
6200th ABW, Clark AB, RP                                                                 1971 - 1974
405th FW, Clark AB, RP                                                                        1974 - 1976
302nd SOS, Luke AFB, AZ                                                                   31 Mar 1976 - 1986
304th ARRS, Portland IAP, OR                                                       30 Dec 1986 - 1987
71st SOS, Davis Monthan AFB, AZ                                               Oct 1987 - 02 Feb 1991
              - C/C TSgt Henry Shaw
              - Last C/C TSgt Doug Lesho
Helo left for USAF National Museum                                       15 Feb 1991
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force                                    19 Feb 1991

According to George Martin (one of the CH-3C pilots) this helicopter, CH-3C 63-09676, made the second combat rescue of the Vietnam War while it was assigned to Air Rescue. This aircraft was one of the first two CH-3C's that were sent from TAC to NKP as an interim. One of the birds, 63-09685 was shot down on 6 Nov 1965. Three of the crew members became POW's and the fourth (the FE) was able to E&E and was later rescued. See the POW page for details.

(Courtesy of Jim Henthorn from the history of the 20th):
According to the Squadron History the paint scheme was supposed to make it harder to see at night. It was painted this way for the two attempted night infiltrations. The infiltrations were deemed too hazardous and stopped. The 20th SOS conducted one night infiltration and one night ex-filtration, details of which are highly classified. The crewmembers concluded after the missions that night missions were so hazardous that unless a dire emergency existed, operations of this nature were not worth the potential loss of men and machines.

The infiltration was unsuccessful, largely due to a lack of light. The ex-filtration was conducted with the assistance of two “Moonlight” flare ships and was successful. However, lighted missions are particularly dangerous. Operations conducted under flares can be observed by the enemy several kilometers away, eliminating the element of surprise and subjecting the operation to ground fire.

(Courtesy of Jerry Clausius from his personal recollection of the 20th):
I was with the 20th SOS "Pony Express" '66-'67 crewing and flying 63-09676. I was with John Coleman as flight mechanic and crew chief on the ACFT. I have seen questions as why the ACFT was painted black. I was told by MSgt Leroy Diggs who helped bring it over from the states that when it arrived from the states it was painted olive drab green with all the required markings, and they were told to get the markings off. The only paint they had was flat black so it was painted with paint brushes to cover all the markings and get rid of the olive drab paint. When I had it at Udorn it was getting to look real bad. There was an Air Force W-4 Warrant officer, Mr. Brenner, at NKP that knew the history of the ACFT and he sent a 5 gal bucket of flat black paint to Udorn to repaint it. We were told that we could not repaint it but could touch it up. So two painters from the paint shop came out to touch it up, they did a real good job of touching it up from nose to tail. Only thing we were made to do was put the warning markings on with flat red paint, this was directed by our line chief MSgt Jetter. The ACFT stayed black until it went to depot in Bangkok where it was painted with standard colors.

Sgt Coleman and I left with the ACFT stuck up on LS-98 where a crew came in to low and hit some rocks with the tail rotor. Next place I knew of it being was at Clark with the survival school before it came back to the states to a Guard or Reserve unit out west. I was really surprised when I saw it at the Museum at WPAFB. The program manager Mr. Ed Tuttle at Robins tried for years to get it in the museum because of its history. It was one of the first H-3s into Viet Nam and one of the last to leave. It had a lot of different configurations while it was at Udorn, from stiff legs, to having one 63 and one 65 sponson on it. It went from a CH-3C to CH-3E., and we always tried to keep one white/gray topped blade on it. We flew a lot of support during the buildup of the radar site at LS-98, and pulled a lot of rescue alert at barrel city for the Jollies because they were always broke. I hope this gives a little more history of OLD Black.

(Courtesy of Doug Lawson from his 03 Mar 2011 email regarding CH-3C 63-09676 getting its black paint job and email traffic with Jim Mardock about it):
My name is Doug Lawson, MSgt. USAF Retired and I was assigned to NKP where CH-3C 676, the Black Mariah, was painted black. It was not the lack of paint. I was directed to have all insignia, etc. painted out and all lights to be disconnected to prevent inadvertently turning on a light. One of my maintenance crew decided to use Black paint and just slopped it on. When I seen what he had done I told him to paint the whole aircraft Black. It was miserably hot that day and he was very unhappy! (as was I).

I don't remember the tail # of another CH-3C, the first aircraft sent to Thai-Am for repair, but I believe it was #689. It had went down in Laos and we done some repairs and flew it out to NKP. We didn't have the capability to repair it so we trucked it to Bangkok for Thai-Am to repair. I later went down to check on the repair because it was taking too long. While there I picked up a local English Newspaper with a front page picture of "The Black Mariah" among other CH-3's at NKP with the caption "A sister in mourning".

~ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IN EMAILS~
RotorHeads member Jim Mardock asks Doug the following:
"Do you recall when this happened at NKP? I was never at NKP, but know some of the guys at Udorn went up there during '66. I assume that since you were disconnecting non-essential lighting, this was in preparation of using 676 for night missions. Although, I don't think the night ops ever took place."

Doug replied:
"I'm sorry I don't remember the dates. I didn't deploy with the 20th. Major Lethbridge and I followed about a month later. I think we arrived in Tan Son Nhut in January. I believe in March we were sent to NKP because the pilots would not fly their missions because of an alcoholic MSgt. in charge. 676 and another aircraft were already on site. Also we were flying primarily night missions when we arrived. So it wasn't painted because we were going to fly night missions, rather that the mission tasked was extremely dangerous. I believe the aircraft was painted about June? A lot more goes with this story. 676 and the other bird was the only aircraft at NKP belonging to the 20th until after a lot of waves had been made and I got a call from Communications that I had 16 aircraft in-bound. We didn't have adequate space for this many aircraft and later we moved all operations to Udorn."

(Courtesy of Robert Davis from his 20 Oct 2014 and 24 Oct 2014 emails regarding CH-3C 63-09676 getting its black paint job):
Robert Davis commented: "I was with the 20th Helicopter Squadron, RVN, Thailand on H-3's and would like to clear up where the "Black Mariah" was painted black, it was while she was at NKP. She was painted by myself and crew chief J. L. Lavana at the time with buckets of flat black paint and brushes."

RotorHeads member Jim Burns asks Robert the following: "Do you recall what color CH-3C 63-09676 was painted before you and J.T. Lavana painted her black? Was she painted olive drab, like some of the early TAC H-3's or was she silver?"

Robert Davis replied: "She was epoxy green (a dark green, not really a drab) and it was coming off in lots of areas."

Note: RotorHeads believes the epoxy green paint was the paint scheme the early TAC H-3's had. We are looking for a good color photo of these early epoxy green H-3's.

Anyone having further information please contact us.

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