Mr Milligan Flies In a Helicopter

[Koala]

I hope this is in the right place

 

A little while ago I commented in the What are you reading thread , that I was making my way through the seven volumes of Spike Milligans war memoirs.

Upon reaching the final volume Peace Work, our hero is now a civilian and touring military bases in Germany as member of a concert party the time is about 

1947/48. He recalls flying from Hanover to Minden in a helicopter with two of his party along with two crew  one which he describes as an ex-glider pilot.

There is nothing much to go on apart from him being strapped into a three seat bench and there was  lot of noise.

Given the general accuracy of the books this account is not artistic licence in my opinion.

My reason for writing this is, what was the helicopter? So what are the options.

1  Ex-Luftwaffe type  pretty unlikely.

2 Sikorsky H4/6 Hoverfly  only 2-3 seaters.

3 Westland Dragonfly  did not fly till late 48.

4 Bristol Sycamore  this first flew in 1947 and has the carrying capacity . 

I feel the last one is the answer, however flying civilians in a prototype machine ,I do not think it would happen nowadays.

 

Anybody got any ideas.

 

Koala

 

[Paul J]

Not that many Helicopters around then, Maybe a Bell 47 the fully enclosed version as opposed to the Sioux version?

[Seahawk]

Hoverfly?

[Koala]

Seahawk   
The Sikorsky R4 was called the Hoverfly in British service ,we had about 50 out of approx 130 built 

They were used in the last months of the Far East campaign in the Casevac role.The R6 was the Hoverfly 2.

 

Koala

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Seahawk]

1 hour ago, Koala said:

Seahawk   
The Sikorsky R4 was called the Hoverfly in British service ,we had about 50 out of approx 130 built 

They were used in the last months of the Far East campaign in the Casevac role.The R6 was the Hoverfly 2.

 

Koala

Thanks for that.  Sorry to say I overlooked that you had already put forward the Hoverfly as an option.  I was putting it forward as my preferred choice: they also served in various trials roles with the RAF and FAA so the possibility of some serving in small numbers in Germany seemed quite plausible.  But I'm away from my copy of The Hoverfly File at the moment.