USA - Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-52A Seaguard 1429

Photographer's remark
(25.10.2013, 22:42 CET)
In 1962, the US Coast Guard selected a modified commercial helicopter, the Sikorsky S-62 (first flown in 1958) as a replacement for its aging H-19 Chickasaw and H-34 Choctaw helicopters used for search-and-rescue operations. How good was this modified commercial helicopter, now known as the HH-52? It has the distinction of having rescued more people than any other helicopter in the world. The seaguard was the Coast Guard's first gas turbine-powered helicopter. Retractable landing gear as well as the two floats (sponsons) make the Seaguard fully amphibious. This particular aircraft is painted as one that was stationed at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York and was donated to the museum by the US Coast Guard. Igor Sikorsky was noted for his development of large, multi-engine aircraft in Russia during the early 1900s. After immigrating to the United States, he became a noted designer of flying boats for trans-oceanic flights. Later he turned his genius to vertical flight, designing and building the first practical helicopter in the Western hemisphere, making the first flight in September of 1939.

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