--- title: "Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe — OnlyPlanes" description: "The Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe is a heavy skycrane helicopter designed to lift large external loads." canonical_url: "https://onlyplanes.ru/en/military-aviation/military-helicopters/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe" locale: en meta: keywords: "aviation, aircraft, airlines, airports, flight" "og:description": "The Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe is a heavy skycrane helicopter designed to lift large external loads." "og:image": "https://onlyplanes.ru/images/military-aviation/models/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe.webp" "og:title": "Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe — OnlyPlanes" --- > Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://onlyplanes.ru/llms.txt) Military helicopters / CH-54 # Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe The Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe is a heavy skycrane helicopter designed to lift large external loads. ![Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe aircraft photograph](https://onlyplanes.ru/images/military-aviation/models/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe.webp) Development ## History The Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe looks very different from a conventional transport helicopter. It has no long permanent cargo cabin beneath the main structure. Instead, its airframe resembles a flying crane designed to carry a heavy object underneath. This arrangement made awkward equipment easier to attach and gave the crew a view of the working area. The US Army used CH-54s to move machinery and supplies and recover damaged aircraft. Tarhe's origins lie in Sikorsky's experimental S-60, which demonstrated the lifting potential of a crane helicopter. The company then developed the more powerful turboshaft S-64. The S-64 first flew on May 9, 1962. The Army bought aircraft for evaluation and designated them CH-54A. The civilian S-64 designation and military CH-54 belong to the same design line, but individual airframes and equipment can have different histories. In a crane operation, cargo hangs below the aircraft. The crew has to manage its mass, balance, and motion. Carrying such an object differs from moving passengers inside a cabin: airflow, swinging, and the point where a load is set down all require special planning. Allowable weight changes with altitude, temperature, and distance. A maximum lifting figure therefore is not the standard load for every journey. In Vietnam, CH-54s moved heavy equipment, including engineering machinery, and recovered damaged aircraft. Sikorsky's archive also describes the transport of artillery pieces to firing positions. These tasks let commanders use sites without road access, but they required a suitable receiving area and coordination with the ground team. A successful lift was one link in a wider logistics chain. Detachable pods were developed to extend the helicopter's uses. They permitted people or enclosed cargo to travel beneath the airframe without abandoning the crane arrangement. This did not turn the CH-54 into a conventional transport helicopter with a fixed cabin. The A and B variants differed in power and operational capability, so figures in reference tables need to be tied to a specific version. The CH-54 demonstrates that military aviation did more than carry soldiers. Lifting a heavy item and moving it quickly across difficult terrain had its own value. The S-64 concept continued outside Army service, but a Tarhe account should remain tied to the military version and its period. The open space beneath the fuselage explains its purpose more clearly than a simple comparison with an ordinary helicopter. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#website","@type":"WebSite","description":"News, stories and rare images from the world of aviation","inLanguage":"en-GB","name":"OnlyPlanes","url":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en","publisher":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#identity"},"translationOfWork":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#website"}},{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en/military-aviation/military-helicopters/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe#webpage","@type":"WebPage","description":"The Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe is a heavy skycrane helicopter designed to lift large external loads.","name":"Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe | OnlyPlanes","url":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en/military-aviation/military-helicopters/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#website"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://onlyplanes.ru/en/military-aviation/military-helicopters/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe"]}],"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#logo"}},{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#identity","@type":"Organization","name":"OnlyPlanes","url":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en","logo":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#logo"},"sameAs":["https://t.me/legkoenebo"]},{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en/military-aviation/military-helicopters/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe#article","@type":"Article","description":"The Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe is a heavy skycrane helicopter designed to lift large external loads.","headline":"Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe","inLanguage":"en-GB","thumbnailUrl":"https://onlyplanes.ru/images/military-aviation/models/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe.webp","author":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#identity"},"image":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#/schema/image/1"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en/military-aviation/military-helicopters/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe#webpage"},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en/military-aviation/military-helicopters/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe#webpage"},"publisher":{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#identity"}},{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#logo","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"OnlyPlanes","contentUrl":"https://onlyplanes.ru/search-logo.png","inLanguage":"en-GB","url":"https://onlyplanes.ru/search-logo.png"},{"@id":"https://onlyplanes.ru/en#/schema/image/1","@type":"ImageObject","contentUrl":"https://onlyplanes.ru/images/military-aviation/models/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe.webp","inLanguage":"en-GB","url":"https://onlyplanes.ru/images/military-aviation/models/sikorsky-ch-54-tarhe.webp"}]} ``` ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](https://onlyplanes.ru/sitemap.md) for all pages.