SWestland Sea King HAS.1/HAS.5/HU.5

King of land, sea and air, Airfix introduces the newly designed 1:48 Westland Sea King HAS.1/HAS.5/HU.5, the most complete Sea King kit ever released with 348 parts. The newly designed Westland Sea King features an intricately detailed exterior, with a fully riveted outer skin and overlapping panels. The interior is equally detailed, with raised cockpit elements and instrument surfaces and three different cabin configurations for each scheme. At the forefront of helicopter design and development in the post-war era, the US Sikorsky Company was awarded a major contract in 1957 to produce an all-weather amphibious helicopter for the US Navy. Its primary mission profile would be that of an anti-submarine warfare aircraft, to protect the US fleet from possible attack. However, the aircraft would prove flexible enough to take on a wide range of secondary tasks and would become one of the largest aircraft of the 20th century.

The aircraft, named SH-3 Sea King, was produced with an amphibious hull, allowing it to land on water, in addition to the more common environment on the decks of numerous US Navy warships. Powered by a twin turboshaft engine, the Sea King was an impressive machine that could carry significant loads of people, equipment or general supplies and provided the US Navy with a truly revolutionary new aircraft.

When the Sea King entered service in 1961, it was the most advanced aircraft of its type in the world and gave the US Navy one of the most flexible aviation platforms of the time. In Britain, an existing licensing agreement between Westland Helicopters and Sikorsky to build their helicopters in Britain was extended to include the SH-3 Sea King not long after the prototype's first flight, because even at that early stage, the incredible potential of this new helicopter was clear and Britain wanted its own Sea Kings.

On the outside, the Sea King helicopters produced by Westland showed the same classic lines of the original American design, but on the inside they were very different machines, with numerous modifications for British military use. The Westland Sea King was selected by the Royal Navy to meet their demand for a helicopter for anti-submarine warfare and replaced the venerable Westland Wessex in this role. In the summer of 1966, an order was placed for 60 aircraft. The first Westland-built Sea King HAS.1 flew from the Yeovil factory on 7 May 1969. Later that year, the first Royal Navy machines were delivered to No.700 Naval Air Squadron (OEU) at RNAS Yeovilton. When the Sea King entered service with the Royal Navy, the aircraft quickly showed itself to be both operationally capable and highly flexible, and it was destined for a long and illustrious career, not only in the Fleet Air Arm, but also in the Royal Air Force.

The aircraft excelled in every role it was assigned, but perhaps it was its use as a search and rescue helicopter in particular that made it one of the most popular aircraft in British military service and undoubtedly one of the most successful aircraft of the post-war era.