The H-19's first flight was on November 10, 1949 and it entered operations in 1950. Over 1,000 of the helicopters were manufactured by Sikorsky for the United States. An additional 550 were manufactured by licensees of the helicopter including Westland Aircraft, Sud-Est in France and Mitsubishi in Japan.

The helicopter was widely exported, used by many other nations, including Israel, Chile, South Africa and Turkey.

The H-19 underwent live service tests during the Korean War beginning in 1951 as an unarmed transport helicopter. Undergoing tests such as medical evacuation, tactical control and front-line cargo support, the helicopter succeeded admirably in surpassing the capabilities of the H-5 Dragonfly which had been used throughout the Korean conflict by the Army.

In 1956, the French Air Force experimented with arming the H-19 Chickasaw aka Sikorsky S-55, then being superseded in service by the more capable Piasecki H-21 and Sikorsky H-34 helicopters. The H-19 was originally fitted with a 20-mm cannon, two rocket launchers, plus a 20-mm cannon, two 12.7-mm machine guns, and a 7.5-mm light machine gun firing from the cabin windows, but this load proved far too heavy, and even lightly-armed H-19 gunships fitted with flexible machine guns for self-defense proved underpowered.

The H-19 was also used in the early days of the Vietnam War before being supplanted by the Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw, which was based on the H-19.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Crew: 2 (pilot, copilot)

Capacity: 12 troops or 8 litters

Length: 62 ft 7 in (19.1 m)

Rotor diameter: 53 ft (16.16 m)

Height: 13 ft 4 in (4.07 m)

Disc area: ft² (m²)

Empty weight: 4,795 lb (2,177 kg)

Loaded weight: 7,200 lb (3,266 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 7,900 lb (3,587 kg)

Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney R-1340-57 radial engine, 600 hp (450 kW)

Performance

Maximum speed: 101 mph (163 km/h)

Range: 405 mi (652 km)

Service ceiling: 10,500 ft (3,200 m)

Rate of climb: 700 ft/min (213 m/min)