The H-43 base rescue helicopter could carry a fire suppression kit to put out aircraft crash fires. Foam in combination with the rotor downwash should open a path for rescuers to reach victims. 58-1830 was delivered to James Connally AFB near Waco, Texas. Photo by: Joe Scherschel / Life

The project to install and test an XT53 turbine engine in this HOK-1 started in February 1956. The first hovering test was on 27 September. Here we get a good view of Kaman's typical inclined twin rotor shafts. Kaman photo. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

A Kaman K-225 was re-engined with a Boeing YT50 turboshaft to become the first turbine-engined helicopter to fly on 11 December 1951. Photo is said to show the maiden flight. The helicopter was owned by the USN but got no military designation. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

129314 was converted to a drone in 1957 and made the first drone helicopter flight without a safety pilot on 30 July 1957. See other photo for the same airframe in a very different setting, with the Navy and 'A Joint Army - Navy Program' markings overpainted. Oddly Robert Kelly took both shots in the same series for Life magazine. Photo by: Robert Kelley / Life

Converted from a single-engined UH-2B. Presumably a Kaman photo taken at Bloomfield. To AMARC in 1993. To RNZAF as instructional airframe at Woodbourne. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

The first H-43B, presumably seen on 13 December 1958. H-43B redesignated HH-43B in 1962. The inner tailfins were changed because they posed an 'interference problem' - in other words, people hit their heads on them when exiting from rear doors. 58-1841 reported preserved at the DoD Fire Academy at Goodfellow AFB, Texas. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

58-5524 served as the prototype H-43A. It was a former US Marine Corps HOK-1, BuNo 129839, which had an accident at Camp Pendleton on 19 September 1956 and was rebuilt by Kaman with the new four-fin tail. Registered as N298B it was first seen in April 1958. By June 1958 it was marked as 58-5524. The 18 production H-43As had lower serial numbers. 58-5524 was used for various tests at Bloomfield until it was retired in early 1963. Information from Johan Ragay's H-43 website. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

The H-43A was the first USAF version of Kaman's K-600, still powered by an R-1340 Wasp piston engine as you can see. It was already a base rescue helicopter just like the later, turbine-engined H-43s. Preceded by 58-5524, this airframe, 58-1823, was the first production H-43A, first flying on 19 September 1958. With Navy HUK-1 BuNo 146317 hovering behind, this photo must have been taken around that time. Photo by: Robert Kelley / Life

The HUK-1, later UH-43C, was an early version of the Huskie. 24 examples were delivered to the US Navy during 1958. The lady on the right flies a HTK-1 drone helicopter in photo 490886. Photo by: Robert Kelley / Life

Unsuccessful twelve-passenger derivative of the H-43 Huskie. The sole prototype is seen powered here by two Boeing YT60 turboshafts, which were later replaced with PT6 units. Photo seems to have been taken in Bloomfield. Photo from: Vertical Flight Society