U.S. Coast Guard pilot Stewart R. Graham flies a Sikorsky R-4 <i>Hoverfly</i> (Royal Navy serial FT835) in joint British-American shipboard helicopter trials on board the freighter MV <i>Daghestan</i> in the Atlantic, 1944. The British Admiralty had been impressed by the Sikorsky XR-4 and its anti-submarine potential. These had been confirmed by trials aboard the British freighter MV <i>Daghestan</i> in November 1943. The first British Sikorsky R-4 was accepted in March 1944 in the USA. A second batch was sent to the UK aboard the escort carrier HMS <i>Thane</i> (D48) in December 1944. 240 R-4Bs were originally ordered for the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, but only 52 were delivered due to the end of the Second World War.<br>FT835 was the YR-4B (ex USAAF s/n 42-107246) and it sailed for UK aboard the <i>Daghestan</i> on 6 January 1944. It was fitted with floats and is believed to have flown convoy-protection trials from <i>Daghestan</i> during the trans-Atlantic voyage. FT835 arrived General Aircraft Ltd. Hanworth, London Borough of Hounslow (UK), and issued to the Helicopter Unit early February 1944. it already crashed at Hanworth in May 1944 and it was probably scrapped in 1946.
CDR John C. Redfield, USCGR
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