3D model
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A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as XZ585 ‘A’, the first RAF Sea King to fly, a search-and-rescue helicopter of No. 202 Squadron in overall rescue yellow with a black anti-glare panel, ‘RAF RESCUE’ and the squadron’s mallard badge on the nose, ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ and Type D roundels on the rear cabin, a grey dorsal radome, the rescue hoist over its open starboard door and red and white tips to its tail rotor blades, as it is displayed at the Royal Air Force Museum London, Hendon. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)
History
The Sea King HAR.3
The Sea King began as the Sikorsky S-61, a twin-turbine anti-submarine helicopter for the US Navy that first flew on 11 March 1959 as the SH-3. It had a watertight boat hull with stabilising sponsons, so that it could alight on the sea, and a five-blade rotor driven by two engines mounted side by side above the cabin. Westland took a licence and re-engined it with Rolls-Royce Gnome turboshafts, added British sonar and avionics, and flew the first Sea King HAS.1 at Yeovil on 7 May 1969. It reached Royal Navy squadrons in 1970.
The Navy used it to hunt submarines from carriers and frigate groups for three decades, and the Commando HC.4, which had a fixed undercarriage and no sponsons, carried Royal Marines from the Falklands in 1982 to Iraq and Afghanistan. In the mid-1970s the RAF ordered the HAR.3 to replace its Whirlwinds and Wessexes in search and rescue. It had a radar under a dorsal radome, a rescue hoist over the starboard door and a cabin with room for stretchers and survivors. The first entered service with No. 202 Squadron in 1978, and with later orders, including six HAR.3As in the 1990s, the RAF flew 25 in all from bases around the coasts of Britain and in the Falklands.
Westland built more than 300 Sea Kings, for Britain and for export customers including Germany, Norway, Belgium, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Australia. The RAF handed its rescue work in Britain to civilian Bristow helicopters in 2015, and the Royal Navy flew its last Sea Kings, the airborne early warning ASaC.7s, until September 2018.
This airframe
Sea King HAR.3 XZ585
XZ585 was the first Sea King built for the RAF and flew for the first time on 6 September 1977. It spent its working life on search and rescue, latterly with No. 202 Squadron, and over 14,472 flying hours its crews carried out 533 winch rescues. On 23 April 2015 it made its last flight, from RAF Valley to HMS Sultan at Gosport, and it has been on display at the RAF Museum in Hendon since 2018. The model shows it as displayed there: overall rescue yellow with a black anti-glare panel, ‘RAF RESCUE’ and No. 202 Squadron’s mallard badge on the nose, ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’, ‘RESCUE’, a Type D roundel, ‘XZ585’ and the code ‘A’ on the rear cabin, a grey dorsal radome, sooty exhaust panels with red blanks, and the rescue hoist on its boom above the open starboard door.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the Sea King HAR.3 in 5 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.