Sikorsky S-51 Restoration Support
In October 1948, the first helicopter flight in Africa took off from Stamford Hill Airfield, Durban, marking 75 years of rotary flight this year! The pilot, the late Captain “Bunny” Pearce, was unfortunately killed in the Korean conflict on July 9, 1951. The SAAF ordered three Sikorsky S-51 helicopters upon a request from the Research Institute at Onderstepoort in Pretoria to assist in getting the Tsetse Fly pandemic, which was raging in Zululand at the time, under control. The name given to this pandemic was NAGANA: /nəˈɡɑːnə/ Noun; a disease of cattle, antelope, and other livestock in Southern Africa, characterized by fever, lethargy, and edema, and caused by trypanosome parasites transmitted by the Tsetse Fly. Hence the badge above depicting the S-51, the Tsetse Fly, and Operation NAGANA, the name given to the first Helicopter Operations in Africa and the date that this operation commenced.
The actual cause of this pandemic was initially unknown, and one theory was that the disease was carried by the game in the area. Unfortunately, over a period of only a few years, over 35,000 head of game were culled. A few years later, over 38,000 head of game were again destroyed, only to discover that this was not actually the main source of the scourge. In 1945/46, over 60,000 head of cattle died in the area from Nagana. These figures give an indication of the scale of the pandemic! By 1945, laboratory tests had proved that the newly manufactured organochlorine pesticide DDT was effective against the Tsetse and other species of flies. It was decided to experiment with aerial spraying to eradicate the Tsetse Fly pandemic!
Conservationists opposed aerial spraying of insecticide to kill Tsetse Flies because such spraying also had significant effects on the abundance and community composition of non-target organisms, especially the pollinators on which the maintenance of biodiversity depends. In 1945, the SAAF started aerial spraying with fixed-wing aircraft, which proved highly successful, except in the areas inaccessible to these aircraft. Hence, the introduction of the helicopter into the spray operation. The success of the operation was measured by counting the number of Tsetse Flies caught in traps, which decreased from around 22,000 to 3,700 over a period of only four months! This number later dropped down to 405 over a similar period.
The above sheds light on some of the turbulent history that existed between humans and animals dating back to more than a century and a half, and some of the challenges that were faced by the far-sighted conservationists of their time who fought for the conservation of species. The original airframe is still intact after six crashes and six rebuilds at the Air Force Museum in Pretoria, but unfortunately, the restoration, which was started in 1978, was never completed. An initiative has been launched to try and restore this “Grand Old Lady” to a static display condition that she deserves for her seventy-fifth birthday in November 2023. The South Aerospace Industry has graciously agreed to complete the sheet-metal work, supply paint for a complete respray, manufacture composite replicas of the spray tanks (these, when completed, will be the only displayed S-51 fitted with these tanks in the world), and refurbish the instrument console.
The big problem that we presently sit with is funding to replace all 14 windows! To the best of my knowledge, only two companies in South Africa are capable of manufacturing these windows, and the best budgetary quote received exceeds R70,000!