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Britain's RAF and Navy Yellow Sea King Helicopter to be Replaced

by Paulette Sedgwick | February 9, 2010 at 01:54 am

1428 views | 19 Recommendations | 3 comments

Britain's yellow Sea King helicopters will soon disappear from the radar. Today the Ministry of Defence will name the private company who will take over the Sea King emergency service.

The Royal Navy and RAF Sea Kings are being replaced by 2012 with white-and-orange helicopters reported to be worth £5bn, and will be flown by civilian staff plus forces pilots. The change over frees the pilots in the forces to be sent to Afghanistan.

The Sea King helicopter first flew in May 1969 and entered service in the Royal Navy the same year. Over the years numerous variations have been produced and the helicopter has adapted a range of functions.

During the Falklands War, the Sea King was used as a troop carrier and equipment mover. In general use, the Sea King has a crew of 2, but can have a crew of 4. It's max speed is 145mph and its max range is 764 miles. Its ceiling flying height is 10,000 feet.

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Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 02:29 on February 9th, 2010

Canada has a few of them left as well. We h ave had many mechanical problems with ours as of late.

Spydermonkey

at 05:42 on February 9th, 2010

Many of the Sea Kings have had problems from salt water corrosion & Inter-granular corrosion. Always a problem with aluminum :(

The A & P school I went too had one outside that was more for show & tell than anything, but is was a good way to show what corrosion untreated looked like .....

Ian and Jane

at 05:56 on February 12th, 2010

While I have no objections to good updates I am not at all sure about privateers running our emergency coastal helicopter services. Having seen what contractors in public service have done in the past (just look at our roads in the UK,) I find the idea most worrying.

Thank you for a excellent news story, well done.