HOK Test Aircraft

HOK AIRCRAFT BAILED FOR ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT and TEST FLIGHTS

Airplane Government No. 125528 HOK-1 Airplane Contractor No. 1
assigned to	location	from	to	remarks
	East Hartford, CT	20-Nov-1952		Assembly completed and aircraft weighed
	East Hartford, CT	27-Nov-1952		First flight or first hover (“Charlie”) before 27Nov or early Dec
	East Hartford, CT	03-Mar-1953		By this date, the two 36 inch chord elliptical shaped fins were increased in size to 46 inches
BAR-FA	East Hartford, CT	28-Apr-1953	29-Apr-1953	Acceptance ceremony and flight at Bradley Fld
BAR-R&D	East Hartford, CT	29-Apr-1953	06-Nov-1953
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	06-Nov-1953	18-Dec-1953
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	18-Dec-1953		Hard landing, damage, repaired
		20-May-1954		By this date the a/c had a 2’ longer tailboom and ventral and dorsal fins on the boom; turnover structure
	Bloomfield, CT	31-Mar-1955		Roll-over accident, damage, repaired
	Bloomfield, CT	29-Jul-1958	27-Aug-1958	took part in flight tests over period 29Jul-27Aug58

O&R	Jacksonville, FL	??-??-1959	11-Oct-1960
VMO-1	New River, NC	11-Oct-1960	24-Feb-1963
O&R	Jacksonville, FL	24-Feb-1963	??-May-1963
VMO-1	New River, NC	??-May-1963	20-Jul-1964
	NAS Alameda, CA	20-Jul-1964	22-Sep-1964
VMO-2	Futema, Japan	22-Sep-1964	24-May-1965
O&R	North Island, CA	24-May-1965	02-Nov-1965
	Tucson, AZ	02-Nov-1965	23-Mar-1967	storage
	Tucson, AZ			SOC TT 2313 hrs

Airplane Government No. 125529 HOK-1 Airplane Contractor No. 2
assigned to	location	from	to	remarks
BAR-M&S	East Hartford, CT	26-Jun-1953	15-Jul-1953
BAR-R&D	East Hartford, CT	15-Jul-1953
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	04-Nov-1953		By this date, the two 36 inch chord elliptical shaped fins were increased in size to 46 inches ; still Continental 975 engine
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	06-Nov-1953	11-Mar-1954
		11-Mar-1954		Crashed ; SOC TT 67 hrs

Airplane Government No. 125530 HOK-1 Airplane Contractor No. 3
assigned to	location	from	to	remarks
BAR-M&S	East Hartford, CT	31-Aug-1953	23-Nov-1953
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	23-Nov-1953
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	23-Nov-1953		By this date, Engine P&W R-1340 was installed in stead of Continental 975
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	20-May-1954		By this date the a/c had R1340 engine, the original tailboom and 2 fin tail, turnover structure ; ARC-12 UHF Equip.
BAR-R&D		07-Dec-1955		Tail low landing, damage, repaired
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	05-Jul-1956		ff with a new 1340 engine and SAR equipment, standard LH hoist, to evaluate water pick-ups. Lake Congamond
		15-Sep-1956	27-Sep-1956	Canadian Tour : RCAF Ottawa, RCN Halifax ; with bear paws
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	05-Sep-1957	11-Sep-1957	Test flights with two outboard fins (at 15 sq.ft.) , two ventral fins (at 5.6 sq.ft.) and two dorsal fins ( 6.45 sq.ft.) mounted to the end of the booms. In this configuration the elevators were extended 12 inch (to both sides of the centerline, introduced in early 1956 for the HOK-3).The aircraft was flown with a yaw boom.
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	18-Oct-1957		The above tail configuration, including extended outboard fins on the bottom with 4,5 inch was test flown. In this configuration the elevators were extended to 18 inch (each side) in stead of 12 inch. The outboard fins were also modified with servo-operated rudders on the back side. The aircraft was flown with a yaw boom.
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	23-May-1958		photo in flight with USAF title, 3-fin tail ; FSK testing
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	01-Sep-1958		photos at Flight Test hangar with MARINES title , 3-fin tail

BWR FR	Bloomfield, CT	12-Jun-1963		SOC TT 2001 hrs

	Bradley Fld, CT			Made part of the collection of the ConAeronHistAss by 01May66
	Bradley Fld, CT	??		Put in storage
	Bradley Fld, CT	??		Destroyed , torn down to parts , except the tail boom and fins
	Bradley Fld, CT	Spring 1975		The tailboom, complete with fins, was mounted to the 129801 airframe

Airplane Government No. 125531 HOK-1 Airplane Contractor No. 4
assigned to	location	from	to	remarks
	Bloomfield, CT	??-Sep-1953		125531 was held back on the production line for the incorporation of any production type changes up to Oct 1954
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	15-Oct-1954		Report W-8, Weight&Balance Report prior to delivery of helicopter for demonstration and trials – external ARC12 UHF Equip., door-gusset-extended tailbooms and early design central fin
NATC	Patuxent River, MD	19-Nov-1954	16-Dec-1954	First hover as start of Contractor’s Demonstration tests at PaxRiver ; last flight of tests 16Dec54
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	Mar - 24 May 1955		After suspension of the BIS tests due to the crash of the NATC 129812 aircraft, various changes were incorporated in the HOK's control systems. For correlation, and consistency of purpose, these test were conducted at Bloomfield using aircraft 125531 which was the original formal demonstration test aircraft. A Yaw-boom was mounted on the helicopter 's nose bubble, extended forward
BAR-FA	Bloomfield, CT	30-Dec-1955	25-Jan-1956
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	25-Jan-1956	27-Sep-1956	February 1956 : start of engineering development program for structural modifications necessary for the installation and test of the Lycoming XT-53-L-1 gas turbine engine. The aircraft is now referred to as HOK-3 and Kaman Model K-600-3
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	27-Sep-1956		First flight with T-53 engine
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	01-Oct-1956	15-Dec-1956	A 50-hour ground test program followed, from 01 Oct to 15 Dec 56.
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	15-Dec-1956	01-Mar-1957	A 30-hour flight test program conducted by Kaman took place from 15 Dec 56 until 01 Mar 57
		01-Mar-1957		Test program continued by Lycoming with a program for engine flight test evaluation from 01 Mar 57 up to 01 September 1957.
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	12-Apr-1957		T-53 engine - First flight with wide tail, extendend exhaust pipe and extended top of dorsal fin, during evaluation by the USAF
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	25-Apr-1957		T-53 engine - Photo of 4 pilots in front of to the original tail configuration reinstalled 125531, marking the end of the USAF evaluation

	Bridgeport, CT	??-??-1959		T-53 engine - Seen with 4-fin tail at Lycoming Mfg
	Bloomfield, CT	27-Aug-1959		SOC TT 525 (?) hrs

Airplane Government No. 129800 HOK-1 Airplane Contractor No. 5
assigned to	location	from	to	remarks
BAR-M&S	East Hartford, CT	30-Sep-1953	05-Nov-1953
BARR	Bloomfield, CT	05-Nov-1953	23-Mar-1954
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	23-Mar-1954
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	12-May-1954		by this date the a/c had the R-975 engine, an extended boom ,large fins and turnover structure
BARR-FA	Bloomfield, CT	31-Aug-1955	25-Oct-1957
	Bloomfield, CT	25-Oct-1957		SOC TT 94 hrs

Airplane Government No. 129801 HOK-1 Airplane Contractor No. 6
assigned to	location	from	to	remarks
BARR	Bloomfield, CT	20-Oct-1953
BAR-M&S	Bloomfield, CT	??-Feb-1954
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	12-May-1954		by this date the a/c had the R-1340 engine, reinforced door (canted) sill, standard tail booms and fins, and turnover structure
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	09-Jul-1954
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	20-Jan-1955		Roll-over accident, damage, repaired
BAR-FA	Bloomfield, CT	31-Aug-1955

BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	29-Jul-1958		Test flights together with 125528 and H-43A 58-5524 until 27-Aug-1958
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	11-Aug-1958		First flight servo 4-fin tail, ventral only
BAR-R&D	Bloomfield, CT	28-Feb-1959	14-Sep-1959
	Bloomfield, CT	14-Sep-1959		SOC , TT 838 hrs


	Bradley Fld, CT			Made part of the collection of the ConAeronHistAss by 01May66
	Bradley Museum, CT	Oct 1973		Seen Oc73 , with experimental 4-fin tail
	Bradley Museum, CT	May 1975		May75 with tailboom 125530
	Bradley Museum, CT			1978 start of repainting project
	Bradley Museum, CT			May 1980 put in storage
	NEAM Museum, CT			Aug 2006 still in storage

last update 13/02/2017