Record Lift

Three platoons of combat-equipped troops form at a staging area at Fort Bragg, N.C., prior to boarding an Army CH-54A Skycrane for an airlift record on April 29. The 90-man lift (87 troops plus a flight crew of three) was the largest number of persons ever transported at one time by a helicopter. The largest previously known lift was 70 paratroopers reported hoisted in a Russian MI-6 helicopter.