The Flying Banana itself,

This was the fourth of a line of tandem rotor aircrafts being made by Piasecki Helicopter (Later Boeing Vertol).
It was a multi-mission design, being able to utilize skis, wheels or floats. It had two names, either the Shawnee or the Workhorse. It also had an un-official name of "Flying Banana".

It was retired in 1967, with it's first flight being in April of 1952.

It's military operators were:
Canada
France
Japan
Sweden
The U.S.A.
And West Germany

While it's only civil operators were the New York Airways

Russia has Model 44A on display at the Central Air Force Museum in Monino, Moscow. U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon gave it as a gift to Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev.

It had a crew of three to five and a capacity of twenty soldiers or twelve stretchers.

It's armament varys, but usually had one or two .50 or 7.62mm M60 Light Machine Guns.