How the Sikorsky Firehawk came to be - Conquering the Bureaucracy

This article was published in the March 2023 issue of Professional Pilot magazine. It’s the complete story of how the UH-60 transitioned from military service into public service, and then, on into private fire fighting contractors. There were near insurmountable government obstacles that only through the persistence and major problem-solving skills of a few key players were overcome, much to the good of hundreds of thousands of families who reside in or near forested countryside. Every day in the news we see videos of Firehawks dropping water on huge, threatening fires, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in residential property. Those families are thankful for the good work of those who made the Firehawk real.