The Piasecki HRP Rescuer, also called Harp, tandem-rotor transport or rescue helicopter, Circa 1947

Yeah, I think someone got clever and colorized it yellow, possibly confusing it with the Piasecki H-21, which was called "the flying banana". Neither were yellow though.

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Lampwick@reddit

Nice. Yeah, def aluminum silver originally. You can tell by the way it is!

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idahotee@reddit

That's what I thought, but heck, first flight 1945. From Wiki-

In service, the HRP-1 frequently suffered various teething and maintenance troubles such as broken engine mounts and loose fittings; it was not unusual for the fabric covering to rip loose from the helicopter in flight, often entangling the rotor blades.

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CosmicPenguin@reddit

the fabric covering

Oh

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idahotee@reddit

Wouldn't want to be the pilot looking at fabric caught in blades in flight.

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Legitimate-Royal3540@reddit

How come the downward direction of the airflow could put the loose fabric in the rotor?

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Blows_stuff_up@reddit

Because rotor downwash is only one component of the complex airflow around the rotor system of a helicopter. Tip vortices can and will suck loose flappy stuff right up into the rotors.

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PandaCheese2016@reddit

Airborne Weinermobile

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AvalancheJoseki@reddit

Does it have to be painted yellow?

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JJohnston015@reddit

Don't worry, it'll be black when they get home.

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dv666@reddit

Then you can make banana bread with it

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CocoSavege@reddit

Originally it was painted green. Or greenish yellow.

Wait a week, you good.

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AlpacaPacker007@reddit

Yes

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MotoRandom@reddit

Yes. Any other color would not look ripe.

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orlock@reddit

For some reason, this is what I imagine the helicopters in 1984 look like.

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koghs@reddit

It looks more like a banana than if someone actively tried to make a helicopter shaped like a banana

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KeneticKups@reddit

Banana themed superhero’s transport

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PelagicDreamer@reddit

It’s two pedals and two sticks

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OneOfManyParadoxFans@reddit

Chiquita clearly designed this. It probably also served as the inspiration for concept of the Wienermobile.

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dim13@reddit

Needs banana for scale.

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AreWeThereYetNo@reddit

We’re all living in a yellow helicopter

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mekoRascal@reddit

Is banana for scale

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Grizzlei@reddit

Big yellow joint.

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fullouterjoin@reddit

Banana Splif

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agate_@reddit

This helicopter is real, but is the photo? Looks like it might be a screenshot from a flight simulator.

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Aethelredditor@reddit

If I had to guess, I would say that it is this image extended and colourised with AI tools. The overall shape of the helicopter is practically a perfect match, but there are changes to surface detail and to the background.

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Impressive_Guide7697@reddit

They had different coloring in different units.
Coastal Guards, Navy, Marine Corps - yellow, grey, navy blue.

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all_is_love6667@reddit

how loud was this?

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Professor_Smartax@reddit

It took a while to make helicopters look like today’s familiar shape.

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the_friendly_one@reddit

These guys had the shortest service life of any helicopter. It was extremely inefficient and a massive waste of resources because once the helicopter turns brown, the only option is to make helicopter bread that nobody eats and it just sits on the counter for a month.

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thrashmetaloctopus@reddit

Imagine you need rescuing from the wilderness, you’ve broken a bone, you’re tired, in pain, scared, and then all of a sudden you hear a distant thumping, and then your savoir appears round a mountain in the distance, and that’s when you accept you’ve finally gone insane as a giant flying banana comes to your aid

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