Operational History
The S-60 (registered N807) first flew on March 25, 1959. The helicopter accumulated 333 hours of flight in its two-year flight career, and was evaluated by the US Navy, with demonstrations also flown for the US Army. While effective in its designed role, the helicopter proved to be underpowered. Sikorsky was already working on an enlarged, turboshaft-powered successor, the Model S-64, which was ordered into production for the US Army as the Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe.
The prototype S-60 was one of the last aircraft that Igor Sikorsky was fully involved with from design and development through the two years of its flights. The prototype crashed in April 1961.
Read more about this topic: Sikorsky S-60
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)