Sikorsky HH-52 Seaguard

In 1962, the U.S. Coast Guard selected the modified commercial Sikorsky S-62 to replace its older H-19 Chickasaw and H-34 Choctaw helicopters used for search-and-rescue operations. Using proven parts such as rotors and gearboxes from those predecessors, the Coast Guard's HH-52A Seaguard reduced development time and costs and went on to rescue over 15,000 people during a 26-year career, more than any other helicopter in the world to date. It was the Coast Guard's first turbine-powered helicopter, using a single General Electric T58 gas-turbine engine that was extremely reliable and became the first gas-turbine certified by the FAA for civilian helicopters. Its watertight boat-hull underside and partially retractable landing gear in side-mounted floats called sponsons made it fully amphibious, while a folding platform along the fuselage and an external hydraulic winch above the large side door let it deploy rescue swimmers and lift survivors from the water or from ships' decks even in severe weather. A total of 99 were built. The aircraft reflected the work of designer Igor Sikorsky, who had developed large multiengine aircraft in Russia in the early 1900s, then after immigrating to the Untied States became a noted designer of transoceanic flying boats before creating the first practical helicopter in the United States, which first flew in September 1939. This aircraft is painted like one stationed at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, and it was donated by the U.S. Coast Guard to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

New York, New York · United States