RAVE Joint forces project with Honeywell

[BigJohn]

Hello! My Dad worked for Honeywell after he left the Navy in the early 70's. He was an aviation electrician and worked on the RAVE project wich was a joint forces project involving a Ch-3 or CH-53, I'm not positive. The helicopter crashed on take off during the testing and was destroyed. I was wondering if anyone had any info or pics of the aircraft or the project. Thanks for your time!

[Edge3333]

I worked for Sperry and was assigned to the Naval Air Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland during the early 70s. I shared an office area with the Ch-53 Rave crew. Project Rave, as I recall, was a flying laboratory investigating synthetic vision techniques. The aircraft crashed, and I do not believe there were any survivors. Honeywell eventually bought out Sperry, and I continued working for the company until I retired in 2003.

[KULHAJOHN]

I worked for Honeywell Test Instruments Division in New Jersey.

 

I was employed as an Aircraft Electrician and worked on a joint Army, Navy and Marine Corps project called "Project Rave".

Project rave began in Johnsville or Johnstown Pa where the aircraft was based. It was subsequently moved to Monmouth County Airport in Tinton Falls New Jersey where it was retrofitted with cameras in the nose and a third (3)pilots station in the mid section of the aircraft.

The aircraft was a Sikorsky CH53

 

We left New Jersey for the test portion of the project which was conducted at the Naval Air Test Center "Flight Test" Pax River Md..

 

Was in Lexington Park Md. for months.

 

The info provided in the last post is incorrect..

The day of the accident, there were four (4) crewman on board the aircraft. There was a Navy Pilot, a civilian Test Pilot as well as two "Crew Chief's one was Army and one was Marine Corp.

The only fatality was the Marine Crew Chief, Sgt Tom Henderson who had extended his enlistment to finish the project.