CASI Helicopter Program

Continental Air Services, Inc. Helicopters

For a brief, fourteen month period starting in late 1966, CASI operated a single Fairchild-Hiller FH1100 helicopter throughout Laos for the Royal Lao Army, the Royal Thai Border Police (RTBP), Studies and Observation Group (SOG), and USAID. Fifteen additional FH1100's were to be operated by CASI and dedicated to the RTBP. Due to manufacturing problems, only five FH1100's were delivered. In 1967 CASI relinquished the FH1100 program in Thailand to the RTBP and in early 1968 terminated the CASI FH1100 program in Laos.  Long rumored to be operating in other areas of Southeast Asia, the remaining FH1100 had suffered a rough landing and was then "pickled" and stored by CASI at Wattay airport in Vientiane, Laos for the duration of the war. 

We've been lucky enough to find the following photographs from this period. The author would like to thank Bill Browder for his generosity in providing these to us.  

All photos courtesy Bill Browder Collection
FH1100 at Wattay	FH1100 at Wattay
FH1100 at Wattay	FH1100 and RTBP
Loyalist Lao Troops	FH1100 at Vang Vieng
FH1100 Pilot	FH1100 Pilot
FH1100 and Customer	FH1100 and Customer
FH1100 Carrying Tools and Equipment	CASI Saigon Tool Locker
Article Regarding Helos	Where did CASI's Helos go? To AAM of course!

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