Sky King Meets The New Millenium

By ANN Correspondent Rob Milford

For a lot of us baby boomers, our first aviation influence came in black and white and 30 minute segments... Sky King and the guys on The Whirlybirds. Now, after a 43-year hiatus, The New Whirlybirds are working to make a comeback.

From 1957 to 1959, actors Ken Toby and Craig Hill flew through 111 half hour episodes on CBS, performing rescues, finding gorillas, delivering iron lungs and putting lots of hours on the Bell-47 in the skies over southern California.

They're Baaaaaack!

Now, The New Whirlybirds is being shopped around Hollywood network offices, with a refurbished aircraft, and two pilot-actors, Joey Rhodes and Danny Rodriguez, making the pitch. Rhodes is President and Executive Director of the Bell 47 Helicopter Association, a new group dedicated to the history and flying preservation of the first commercially certificated helicopter.

According the Bell-Textron, there were 6,263 aircraft produced, and more than 1200 are still on the US Register. It should be noted that the production line ran from 1946 to December, 1973.

Rhodes and Rodriguez hope the show to "be the voice of the Bell 47", and will introduce a new generation to the legendary helicopter. On a broader scope, they hope to help audiences see how helicopters have impacted our lives.

Meet And Greet

At the HAI Show, a beautifully restored '47 is on display, looking factory fresh after a "skids up" overhaul. Both actors are there, looking like, well, helicopter pilots, signing pictures, and getting people signed up, joining the Bell 47 association. Just after lunch on Sunday, the group was 230 members strong.  Rodriguez told me "We see our association as being an advocacy group for the Bell-47, like the AOPA, just a bit smaller".

The group plans to tie in a comic strip or comic books, along with an active web site for cross-promotion.

FMI: www.bell47helicopterassociation.org