Piasecki Helicopter Corp designed the HUP family of tandem-rotor aircraft soon after World War II ended. The design goal was for a utility helicopter that could be based on U.S. Navy aircraft carriers for search and rescue, plane guard and general transport duties.

At the conclusion of the first American spaceflight to orbit the Earth, a Retriever ferried Mercury astronaut John Glenn from a destroyer to the primary recovery ship. HUPs were in service with the Navy and Marine Corps from 1949 until the early 1960s.