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A GUIDE TO HELICOPTERS IN CINEMA & TELEVISION |
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Red Dawn 
(1984) - this World War III adventure by John Milius sees teenage heroes fighting the
commie threat..."There are two scenes, one near the beginning of the invasion, where a UH-1N attacks a line of Russian and Cuban APVs, and another later where a flight of three Mi-42A Hinds (the same fake ones as used in Rambo III) attack the rebel Wolverines. Also, a Yak-38 gets blown up in another scene, but it's not flying and not a helicopter - although it is a VTOL aircraft." - BRIAN McINTYRE "Old Sikorsky S-55 transport helicopters are made up to be Russian Hinds in this classic 1980s movie. Many people think the Hinds were European-built Pumas, but the official Sikorsky corporate website touts their products in the movie." - NATHAN DECKER "You might want to change the statement that Sikorsky S-55 helicopters were used in the movie Red Dawn. First of all S-55 Helicopters do not have retractable landing gear. Notice as well that the cockpit of the S-55 is above the cabin, the helicopters in Red Dawn are not configured in this way. The tail rotor is on the opposite side of the helicopter for it to be a S-55. So what this website is saying is that Sikorsky took an S-55 and modified retractable landing gear on them and then switched the tail rotor from one side to another. And the greatest feet is lowering the cockpit so that it is no longer positioned above the cabin but in front of the cabin which we all know on a S-55 that this area is were the engine is located. Another issue is the cabin door, on a S-55 there is only one cabin door on the starboard side. In the movie the helicopter has doors on both sides like a Puma. "I find it hard to believe this was done, what is more likely is that someone saw that S-55 helicopters were being modified to look like Hinds. This did occur the US Army awarded a contract to have Sikorsky S-55 helicopters modified to look like Hinds by Orlando Helicopter Airways. These were modified to be used as target drones. These drones did look very much like Hinds however they still had fixed gear and althouh a false nose was added to the front of the aircraft the cockpit was still positioned above the cabin. These aircraft designated QS-55 could be flown by remote control or by pilots. "I beleive the fake Hinds in the movie Red Dawn are Pumas, one thing however seems obvious they are not S-55 helicopters unless Sikorsky was willing to pay alot of money to heavily modify a few old birds for a movie. I have not seen on the Sikorsky website were they talk about this please post a link to this site." - JAMES D'ANGINA
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