{"id":10839601,"date":"2026-08-09T16:29:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/piasecki-h-21-flying-banana-tandem-rotor-helicopter\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T16:29:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:29:55","slug":"piasecki-h-21-flying-banana-tandem-rotor-helicopter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/it\/piasecki-h-21-flying-banana-tandem-rotor-helicopter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flying Banana That Went to War"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<p>It looked like a punchline &mdash; a helicopter with its fuselage bent upward in the middle like a piece of fruit, a fat rotor spinning at each end. Soldiers called it the Flying Banana, and they meant it with affection. But the Piasecki H-21 was no joke. It pulled downed airmen out of the Arctic, carried some of the first American troops into battle in Vietnam, and helped write the playbook for the helicopter assault.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:18px\">Informazioni rapide<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.8\"><li><strong>Tipo:<\/strong> Piasecki H-21 Workhorse \/ Shawnee &mdash; tandem-rotor helicopter<\/li><li><strong>Soprannome:<\/strong> the &ldquo;Flying Banana&rdquo;<\/li><li><strong>Primo volo:<\/strong> April 1952<\/li><li><strong>Motore:<\/strong> one Wright R-1820 radial driving both rotors<\/li><li><strong>Costruito:<\/strong> 707, through 1958<\/li><li><strong>Retired from US Army front line:<\/strong> 1964, replaced by the UH-1 Huey<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DTrswY_nC6M\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Born for the cold<\/h2><p>Piasecki designed the H-21 as an Arctic rescue and transport machine, and it first flew in April 1952. Its odd banana shape was pure function: bending the fuselage kept the two big tandem rotors clear of each other while leaving a roomy cabin between them. A single Wright R-1820 radial engine drove both rotors, and the whole aircraft was built to keep working in cold that would ground almost anything else.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The H-21 had cold-weather features permitting operation at temperatures as low as &minus;65 &deg;F and could be routinely maintained in severe cold weather environments.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Aviation historians<\/strong> &mdash; on the H-21<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1648201844  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/piasecki-h-21b-workhorse-usaf-arctic.jpg\" alt=\"Piasecki H-21B Workhorse of the USAF\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A USAF H-21 Workhorse. The type was built for Arctic rescue and cold-weather transport. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The wrong helicopter in the wrong climate<\/h2><p>Then it went to war in the tropics. When the US Army sent H-21s to Vietnam in December 1961, with the 8th and 57th Transportation Companies, the cold-weather machine ran headlong into heat and humidity. Rated to carry 20 troops, it could lift only around nine in Vietnam&rsquo;s hot, thin air. It was slow, and it made a large target. Yet for two years the Flying Banana was the Army&rsquo;s workhorse, ferrying South Vietnamese soldiers into landing zones.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The H-21 performed poorly in the hot weather of Vietnam, and despite being capable of carrying 20 passengers, it only carried nine when operating in Vietnam.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>HistoryNet<\/strong> &mdash; on the H-21 in Vietnam<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QemQLfgiTlw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1839314499  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/h-21-shawnee-crew-chief-vietnam.jpg\" alt=\"H-21 Shawnee crew chief in Vietnam\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A crew chief with a 57th Transportation Company H-21 in Vietnam. Photo: U.S. Army \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The grandfather of the Chinook<\/h2><p>The Banana&rsquo;s real legacy is what it started. Frank Piasecki&rsquo;s tandem-rotor formula &mdash; two large rotors turning in opposite directions, no power wasted on a tail rotor &mdash; proved itself on the H-21 and led directly to the Boeing Vertol family that followed: the CH-46 Sea Knight and, above all, the CH-47 Chinook, still hauling troops and artillery more than 60 years later.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-eYFtYE1v-U\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>The Huey replaced it on the front line in 1964, and the Flying Banana slipped away into museum corners and faded war photographs. But every Chinook thundering over a battlefield today is, in a sense, its descendant &mdash; proof that the funny-looking helicopter had the last laugh.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;color:#777;font-size:14px\">Sources: HistoryNet; MilitaryFactory; Wikipedia; U.S. Army Aviation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Post correlati<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/sikorsky-s-64-skycrane-flying-crane\/\">L&#039;elicottero che \u00e8 a malapena un aereo<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/mil-mi-26-helicopter-lifting-tupolev-tu-134-airliner\/\">When a Helicopter Picks Up an Airliner: The Mi-26 Sling-Lift That Defies Belief<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It looked like a punchline &mdash; a helicopter with its fuselage bent upward in the middle like a piece of fruit, a fat rotor spinning at each end. Soldiers called it the Flying Banana, and they meant it with affection. But the Piasecki H-21 was no joke. It pulled downed airmen out of the Arctic, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":10839017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10839601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Piasecki H-21: The Flying Banana Helicopter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Piasecki H-21 \u201cFlying Banana\u201d flew Arctic rescues and carried the first US troops into Vietnam \u2014 grandfather of the Chinook.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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