More than a thousand visitors were on hand, including hundreds of former Coast Guard pilots, air and ground crews as a Sikorsky HH-52A search-and-rescue helicopter was formally accessioned by the museum.
Although there are hundreds of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft on display at National Air and Space museum facilities, the addition of SeaGuard helo number 1426 marks the first time a Coast Guard airframe has been added to the national collection.
Over its lifespan, SeaGuard amphibious helicopters performed drug interdiction missions and rescued more than 15,000 people from hurricanes, failed engines and boating mishaps.
This included the 1979 collision between the oil tanker Burmah Agate, and the cargo freighter Mimosa outside Galveston Harbor. Helo 1429 saved the lives of 22 crew members from the burning ships.
The Coast Guard SeaGuard Helicopter joins hundreds of historic aircraft at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Northern Virginia, such as the SR-71 Blackbird, Space Shuttle Discovery and the B-29 Enola Gay.
Smithsonian museum inducts first Coast Guard aircraft — an HH-52A Seaguard helicopter — into the National Air and Space Museum collection
