42 African Pilot April 2015
During 1971, Jack Erickson, a second generation logger and CEO of the
Erickson Lumber Company engaged the services of Wes Lematta of Columbia
Helicopters for timber harvesting. For years many lumber companies had
experimented with helicopter logging, but with little success. Erickson’s
venture using Lematta’s S-61 Sikorsky optimised the heavy lift helicopter
and proved to be so profi table that he purchased his own S-64 early in 1972
followed by a further three later in the year. Now the owner of a fl eet of S-64s,
Erickson spread his wings expanding into fi re fi ghting, infrastructure support,
power line construction, oil and gas exploration as well as the transport of
people and products. In 1975, one of his Skycranes placed the seven ton
steel sections that made up the antenna and weathering metering systems
of a 564 metre tall steel structure then the tallest of its kind. In 1983 an
Erickson Skycrane transported 1,100 tons of heavy construction equipment
to a remote road in Alaska in what is believed to be the largest civilian airlift
operation at the time.In 1992, Erickson bought the rights to manufacture the S-64 from Sikorsky
and marketed it as the Ericson S-64E Aircrane. More than 1,350 changes