Sea King Ilustrated

The Sikorsky Sea King was the first jet-powered helicopter in U.S. service, but as the title of this book suggests, it was not limited to American service. All military aircraft have alphanumeric identifiers that usually precede their popular names. (F-15 Eagle , etc.) The Sea Kings popularity resulted in several of these, since it was built under license in Canada, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan. The company designation was S-61 and there were at least 11 different versions built for unique missions. The primary mission of the Sea King, the mission for which it was designed, was that of submarine hunter/killer, a dual mission which had previously been performed by a pair of helicopters. That mission had risen to primacy in order to counter the threat of a growing fleet of Russian submarines during the cold war that raged throughout the last half of the 20th century. The Sea King was an unqualified success in that mission, and the basic design was so good that several additional missions were assigned, including Rescue, basic transport, and carrier plane guard duties. The H-3 also became the first Jolly Green Giant in USAF ARRS, pioneering a critical combat mission in the Vietnam War. This is a visual history of the Sea King in U.S. and foreign service, civil and military. The many missions of the Sea King make for a very colorful history, documented herein by over 200 color photos and illustrations.