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[[image caption]] Cdr. Patrick L. Sullivan and Lt. B.V. Witherspoon fly the HSS-2 helicopters off the deck of the USS Lake Champlain [[/image caption]]

HSS-2 COMPLETES CARRIER TRIALS...

Scheduled to go into fleet service late this year as a submarine hunter-killer, the Navy's twin-turbine Sikorsky HSS-2 has completed its first carrier suitability trials.

USS Lake Champlain served as the test carrier during a week's cruise off the Atlantic Coast. The tests were part of the Board of Inspection and Survey trials.

Two HSS-2's of the seven BIS helicopters were used in the sea trials. They operated in a variety of extreme wind and sea conditions from a wide selection of deck locations.

The following points of the HSS-2 operations were cited:
1. 100 per cent availability for all scheduled flights.
2. Automatic blade folding successfully accomplished in winds up to 45 knots.
3. Rotor turn-ups and helicopter take-offs conducted in winds up to 48 knots.
4. Engine starts, spreading of blades and rotor turnups made downwind without difficulty.
5. Normal and roll-on landings made on one or two engines. The turbocopters proved very stable on the deck, even under extreme cross-wind conditions.
6. After rotor shutdown, HSS-2's were shifted from flight deck to hangar deck at more than twice the speed possible with present types of fleet ASW helicopters.

During the HSS-2 trials the Lake Champlain was flying the flag of RAdm. George P. Koch, commanding the antisubmarine test group. the Lake Champlain was under the command of Capt. Ralph Weymouth during the tests.

[[image caption]] An HSS-2 hovers near a destroyer in the suitability trials [[/image caption]]

22     NAVAL AVIATION NEWS