FAIRFIELD —The Penfield Reef will be officially designated a Vertical Flight Society Heritage Site, recognizing the location of the world’s first successful helicopter hoist water rescue. That first-in-aviation history act revolutionized search and rescue operations from that day forward and established a model still in use today.
In 1945, during a fierce storm, two men stranded on a barge off Penfield Reef fired emergency flares that were spotted by Fairfield residents along the shoreline. With rescue boats unable to reach the barge, local Fairfield police turned to nearby Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford to attempt an aerial rescue.
Engineers and flight crews quickly mobilized, preparing a Sikorsky R-5 helicopter equipped with a newly developed hoist system that had only recently been demonstrated to the U.S. Coast Guard. The helicopter with two crew on board hovered above the barge and dropped a note to the men, promising a return with rescue harnesses. On its return, in a first-of-its-kind maneuver, the helicopter rescued the two men in successive lifts, transporting one partially in the cabin, and carrying the other suspended beneath the aircraft.
To commemorate this historic rescue, the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Co., will formally designate Penfield Reef as a Heritage Site at 1 p.m. on May 15 at Penfield Pavilion back deck.
The VFS will present to the Town of Fairfield a commemorative plaque honoring the feat. As a tribute, Sikorsky plans to fly a company-owned Black Hawk helicopter to the Penfield Reef from its factory in Bridgeport, hover over the area of rescue, and then return to Bridgeport.
“This remarkable story of bravery, teamwork and innovation is a testament to community action in the face of adversity,” said First Selectperson Christine Vitale. “We are honored to have Penfield Reef recognized as the site where rescue aviation was forever changed. Countless lives have been saved due to the quick response and ingenuity of Sikorsky and the Fairfielders of 1945.”
Sikorsky Vice President and General Manager Rich Benton is proud of his company’s involvement in such a historic rescue event.
“The first-ever helicopter rescue using a hoist showed the world the tremendous potential of a machine that could hover and bring people out of danger,” he said. “Deservedly, the two crew members and two rescuees received the first Sikorsky helicopter rescue awards, a practice we continue 80 years later. Lessons learned from the Penfield Reef incident by Sikorsky engineers changed the trajectory of vertical lift aviation; the design of larger, more powerful helicopters with reliable hoists to bring multiple people on board — capabilities that save thousands of lives every year around the world.”
This moment is woven into the very fabric of vertical flight history, Vertical Flight Society Director Angelo Collins said. “Just miles from where Sikorsky and the Vertical Flight Society were founded in Stratford, Connecticut, this rescue demonstrated, for the first time, what helicopters could truly do. Eighty years later, Sikorsky continues to add new threads of innovation, helping define the broader vertical flight community,” Collins added.
Information about the world’s first helicopter hoist rescue is posted at the Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives.
