1957 Bell 47G-2, c/n 2425, CF-LRD, Okanagan Helicopters

1957 Bell 47G-2, c/n 2425, CF-LRD, Okanagan Helicopters with BCFP’s Web Binion and four unidentified men at BCFP’s Caycuse Camp, Cowichan Lake, Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada sometime in spring 1964.

1957 Bell 47G-2, c/n 2425, CF-LRD, Okanagan Helicopters (Okanagan Helicopters Ltd.), Vancouver International Airport (YVR/CYVR), Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., Canada, based at Vancouver International Airport (YVR/CYVR)

• titled Okanagan on saddle-mounted external fuel tanks; overall gloss yellow finish; in Okanagan Helicopters colour scheme (1947)

• powered by one vertically-mounted 220-hp Avco Lycoming VO-435-A1D six-cylinder, horizontally-opposed, fan-cooled piston engine with two-blade main rotor & stabilizer bar and two-blade tail rotor on starboard side

• side-by-side pilot and two passengers, light helicopter utility transport

• hydraulic-assist controls, twin saddle-mounted external fuel tanks, exposed welded-tube tail boom with synchronized horizontal stabilizer and end plates, and tail skid as tail rotor guard

• full “goldfish bowl” bubble canopy, removable forward cabin door on each side, external cargo outriggers on each side, provision for external belly sling hook

• fixed skid twin landing gear with air-inflated nylon floats for amphibious operations from land, water, marsh, ice, or snow

History:

• built by Bell Helicopter Corporation, Bell Aircraft Corporation, Hurst, near Fort Worth, Texas, USA at Bell Helicopter Plant 1, Bell Helicopter Hurst Heliport (0TE2), Hurst, near Fort Worth, Texas

• delivered as CF-LRD to Okanagan Helicopters (Okanagan Helicopters Ltd.), Vancouver International Airport (YVR/CYVR), Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., Canada in 1957

• based at Vancouver International Airport (YVR/CYVR)

• titled Okanagan on saddle-mounted external fuel tanks; overall gloss yellow finish; in Okanagan Helicopters colour scheme (1947)

• converted to 47G-2A, c/n 2425-20, powered by one vertically-mounted 240-hp Avco Lycoming VO-435-A1E six-cylinder, horizontally-opposed, fan-cooled piston engine with two-blade main rotor & stabilizer bar and two-blade tail rotor on starboard side

• N74094, ?, USA but further details unknown

• HK-1302E, ?, Colombia but further details unknown

• ? possibly Helicol (Helicópteros Nacionales de Colombia SA), Bogotá, Colombia

• cancelled in ?

• fate unknown

[1959 Kodak Retina IIIS (Type 027) rangefinder 35mm roll film camera, s/n 86125; Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Xenon 50mm f/1.9 Synchro Compur lens, s/n 6841319]

© Copyright photograph by Uwe Kündrunar Scharnberg, 1964 

© Copyright words and photograph by Stephan Alexander Scharnberg, January 2015