Privately owned 'Marine 1' helicopter! | Westland Sea King HAR.3

Historic Helicopters are known for their large collection of ex-military helicopters, notably numerous former Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Westland Sea Kings. This Westland Sea King HAR.3, which previously served with No.202 Squadron based at RAF Lossiemouth, is seen here painted as a Sikorsky VH-3A, part of Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1), for a Netflix series.

With the chopper soon to lose it's HMX-1 colours and revert back to the yellow RAF SAR, Threshold Aero organised an event with Historic Helicopters where photographers could have the unique opportunity to take night photos of a running 'Marine One'! Of course, it is only referred to Marine One when the President Of The United States is flying onboard a USMC aircraft. Thus, even if the President were to be onboard this particular aircraft, it would be referred to as ‘Executive One’ just as any other civil aircraft.

Nonetheless, the aircraft to even the average aviation enthusiast is almost identical to the VH-3Ds currently in use by HMX-1 now. Many thanks to Historic Helicopters and Threshold Aero for putting the event together and for getting the helicopter to work (it had electrical problems all day and these were only solved just as the sun went down).

The video shows the Sea King lifting from where its maintenance work was being carried out and moving into position in front of all the photographers, kicking up quite a lot of grass!

Aircraft in video:

Aircraft: Westland Sea King HAR.3
Registration: G-SEAK (painted as fictional 156112)
Operator: Historic Helicopters
Livery: Sikorsky VH-3A, HMX-1
Based at: Historic Helicopters, Chard Equestrian
Time: 1815 hrs
Date: 02/03/2023

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