More detail on this person: My father died of
secondary bone cancer after originally being
diagnosed with colon cancer. He fought a two year
battle with cancer before it took him. This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site:
03/10/2024
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Following my fathers two tours in Vietnam (24
months total) he attended and graduated from the
Naval test pilot school at Patuxent River Maryland
(where I was born). After leaving the Army, my
father went to work as a test pilot. He worked on
every major helicopter program of his time. Upon
leaving the Army, he flew test for Lockheed on the
Cheyenne prototypes at Edwards Air Force Base,
where he was also checked out on multiple fixed
wing aircraft. During this time and for a period
of time afterward, it is rumored that he flew F104
starfighters and U2 spy planes for the CIA. He
also flew test for the CIA on a stolen Russian
Kamov KA-6 (I believe it to be this model, however
I could be wrong, I even have a picture of it
taken in Texas during test).
Followng his work at Edwards, Morrie took a job
flying test for Sikorski Helicopter in Conneticut.
He did many jobs for Sikorski including training
other pilots to fly their exceptionally large
helicopters as well as testing on the S-60
blackhawk. It was during this test program that it
is rumored that he was the first man to complete
several aerobatic manuvers in a helicopter
including a roll, loop and split ess. Durring a
training mission in Brazil when my father was
training Brazilian pilots to fly CH-53's, he
crashed in the jungle and was unable to get out
for many weeks. During this time, he befriended a
former Nazi SS officer from World War II who was
hiding in the jungles of Brazil (I'm not sure
which one it was, but my father later saw this man
on televison being prosecuted for war crimes at
the Hague). Sensing a great opportunity, Morrie
left Sikorski and moved to California (mostly to
please my Mother) and turned the failing YAH-64
program into a winner. Hughes was widely
considered the underdog in this competition and
was sure to loose to the much larger and more
experienced Bell Helicopter and their YAH-63.
After flying test on the rough edged AV01, AV02
ships, Morrie helped the engineers identify and
eliminate some problems, and Hughes promoted
him to Manager of Experimental flight test and
eventually Manager of production on the Apachee
program for Hughes and then McDonnell Douglas.
In 1984 Morrie went to work for the
Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm group (MBB)
developing the Euro-Copter "Tiger" attack
helicopter. By 1986 prototyping at MBB had been
completed and Morrie went to work at Atlas
Aviation in South Africa where he helped complete
the Rooivalk prototype and testing program.
Morrie was also involved in several other
avatiation programs including Ratheon's fly by
light control system and the Aermacchi MB-339 jet
trainer. According to my fathers friends, he was
highly regarded in the Aviation industry and very
well known.
From: Morrie E. Larsen Jr.
I am the younger brother of Morrie E. Larsen. I
found the brief write up about his death in St.
Maries Idaho. Actually I managed to spend some
fishing time with him before he was diagnosed with
cancer.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant from the
Oregon State University ROTC program, 1966.
He was very closed mouthed about his activities
after the war. I have my own suspicions given he
seemed to disappear every time there was a crisis
somewhere in the world. Guess all I will ever know
is that he was an outstanding pilot and put
significant work into the weapons guidance system
of both the US Cherokee and the South African
Puma.
His ashes are buried at the Willamette Cemetery
near Portland Oregon, a military cemetery. Sure
would like to know more about who he was and
stories of the men who served/worked with him.
Sidney A. Larsen at slvrshadowblue@yahoo.com