First, as a brand new member, my personal thanks to "beddoe" for moderating and for each member for serving, and sharing their experiences! My hat is off to you Marines for serving your country, your fellow Marines and leaving a legacy for us and future Marines to add to. I have enjoyed reading several of your accounts and jibber-jabber for a few weeks now.

Second, though I am not a Marine aviator, I am a Marine who loves aviation, especially Marine helicopter aviation. I am a mobilized Reservist and work with some Phrog drivers on the II MEF staff. In response to a question before a staff meeting a few months ago about the age of current USMC hardware, I posited that the prototype for the CH-46, the Vertol 107, took its first flight on 22 April, 1958, fifty years ago! That made for some lively discussion, (not all germain), and got me thinking. So I started crunching the numbers.

In my personal time, I created an Excel spreadsheet listing all 825 Vertol 107s (and derivatives) produced. I will post it on the website, if permissible. I do not have all the info for each Boeing or Kawasaki construction number, but I have included what I could find (that's how I found this forum.) and made educated guesses at the rest. I am soliciting your help as first hand witnesses to assist with filling in the blanks, especially on the early machines. I am looking for info on first flights (ff), del dates (del), assignments to a Sqn, (asgd), transfers to the Navy or MASDC/AMARC (xfer), incidents (wfu, w/o, SOC, sto), etc... Also, if any one knows the Sqn code (I realize I'm asking a lot) for each BuNo when asgd to a sqn, I will be grateful.

Additionally, I also found a website dedicated to all helicopters, civil and military. They did have the BV-107/II listed, but only had entries for a handful of civil machines that New York Airways flew during the sixties. I have added all the military and foreign models designations and am adding the Boeing-Vertol construction/Bureau numbers for the CH-46As, followed by the Ds & Fs. I welcome any comments. The website is located at:
[URL= http://www.helis.com/database/model/ ] Please take a minute to check it out and add additional info to existing entries or create new entries. Jorge, the Helis.com database moderater is in the midst of updating the database and adding more features.

Semper fi!
Dutch