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Erickson S-64F Air-Crane Helitanker

ELVIS LIVES!

These days, the sight of a helitanker against a background of smoky skies is a common sight in eastern Australia. We know them by name - “Elvis”, “Georgia Peach” and “The Incredible Hulk”

As I was building this model in December 2002, the rumble of Georgia Peach’s (IIRC) rotors, driven by twin Pratt & Whitney jet turbine engines could be heard above my house, sounding - as my 4.5 year old daughter described it - like “a very, very big lawnmower”.

The construction took about three hours, plus an hour’s web surfing beforehand. I built it cockpit first, then fuselage, landing gear (definitely the weak point - both in terms of strength and accuracy - of the model), then rotors, and finally the water tank.

After completing the model I went out to a meeting, and on the oval about half a kilometre from my house, a real Air-Crane Helitanker was parked. Despite the size of the model (roughly minifig scale), and knowing the dimensions of the real thing, I didn’t really appreciate how big the real thing was until a saw one on the ground in a familiar location. It’s huge. Two storey+ house huge.

Some stats on the real thing:

Length:		27.7m

Height:		7.8m

Rotor Span:		22m

Fuel capacity:		4,900 litres (in three tanks)

Water capacity:		9,500 litres (which it can fill through its pond snorkel in c. 45 seconds - and it only needs 45cm of water depth to operate!)

Model stats, including a piece count, to follow in due course.

I took the following pictures late yesterday, against the backdrop of smoky Sydney skies:

Double click on any image for an enlargement

Richie Dulin
Sydney, Australia
9 December 2002

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