Royal Marine Commandoes from 42 Commando hit MAMYOKO BEACH from Sea King helicopters of 846 Naval Air Squadron, in a demonstration of amphibious power during Operation Silkman in Freetown, Sierra Leone 13 Nov 2000. MOD image by Royal Navy PO Jim Gibson (Click to big up)
The ‘Kings above are British Westland-made HC.4 Commandos that can carry 28 fully equipped troops– not bad for (at the time) 40-year old technology. When you look at the size of these huge birds, think of the 3000-sq.ft of disk area the 62-feet of rotors need to turn inside– that’s bigger than most single family houses! These leviathan 6-ton (empty) birds could land on water due to their hulls, carry their body weight in cargo and fuel, and travel an impressive 600+ nautical miles.
(Yes, we said, land on water) SW2007-0306-14 21 August 2007
Morris Lake, Nova Scotia .A CH-124 Sea King sits on Morris Lake in Dartmouth, N.S. as part of the annual “waterbird” training. The training is designed to prepare pilots to effectively manage in-flight emergencies over water. CF Photo by Corporal Sandra Garland
The Sikorsky S-61 (U.S. designation SH-3) Sea King first touched down on a carrier in 1961 while performing trials on the USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) and was the go-to ASW and seaborne support chopper of the NATO navies for more than thirty years.
Assigned to VC-5, this Sikorsky SH-3D – BuNo 148050 is seen conducting a drone recovery off the coast of California, 1981. Photo USN
Replaced in large part by the SH-60 Sea Hawk, they left the U.S. fleet altogether except for 11 VH-3 Sea Kings used by Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1) to transport the President and co.
Overseas they were largely put to pasture by the Westland Lynx, NH Industries NH90 and Agusta–Westland AW101 Merlin, but these big cold war choppers are still flown by Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, Qatar, Spain, Pakistan, Peru, the UK (in limited numbers) Venezuela and oh yeah….Iran.
