This was the first helicopter landing on a Spanish Navy ship in 1955

It happened in a Galician estuary on May 8, 1955. The 65th anniversary of that milestone in Spanish naval aviation, with the Bell 47 as the protagonist, was recently commemorated.

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The first Spanish helicopters arrived in Vigo in 1954

In 1953, the American company Bell Helicopter proposed to the Spanish Air Force the sale of three Bell 47 Sioux helicopters, a very simple design aircraft with a dome-shaped cockpit (which led to its nickname "Bombilla" -Lightbulb- in Spain) and a two-bladed main rotor, which had become famous around that time during the Korean War. The Air Force showed no interest, but the Ministry of the Navy did. A few months later, several members of the Spanish Navy departed for Fort Worth, Texas, to complete the corresponding pilot and mechanic training courses.

The first three Bell 47G helicopters arrived at the port of Vigo on January 1, 1954, disassembled and packed. They were assembled by two mechanics at the Naval Military School (ENM) in Marín. Their arrival marked the creation of the Navy's Air Arm and its Helicopter Group, the precursor to the later 1st Aircraft Squadron. On June 19, 1954, the first flight of the Bell 47G helicopters took place at the ENM's sports field, and on January 24, 1955, Spain's first helicopter school, the Helicopter Application School, was established in Marín. It utilized the facilities of the Naval Military School and employed as instructors the officers who had trained as pilots in Fort Worth.

In 1934 Juan de la Cierva had already landed on the deck of the 'Dédalo'

The Naval Academy was precisely the setting for another milestone in Spanish aviation. On May 8, 1955, the first helicopter landing on a Spanish Navy ship took place. It should be noted that this was not the first aircraft to land aboard one of the new warships, as that feat was achieved by Juan de la Cierva with his autogyro in 1934 on the flight deck of the seaplane carrier "Dédalo" in Valencia.

The vessel chosen for the 1955 capture was a tugboat: the RR-19

The vessel chosen for the first landing was a Navy Roadstead Tug, of the RR-10 class, specifically the RR-19, built by Construcciones Navales Militares in Ferrol, launched on February 4, 1943, and commissioned on March 11, 1945. Thus, this milestone for the Navy was to have two Galician protagonists: a tug from Ferrol and a helicopter that had been assembled in Marín. The landing took place in the waters of the Pontevedra Estuary. A platform was installed on the RR-19's quarterdeck. The aircraft that landed on the ship was the second of the Bell 47G helicopters, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Eliseo González Mosquera.

That would not be the last milestone for Spanish naval aviation. On November 8, 1972, the aircraft carrier "Dédalo" became the first ship on which a VTOL aircraft landed and took off, specifically an AV-8S Matador fighter jet (a local version of the famous Harrier) from the 8th Aircraft Squadron.

The fate of the protagonists of that milestone in our naval history

Regarding the protagonists of the 1955 event, the Bell 47G helicopters were transferred from Marín to Rota in 1957, and the Navy eventually had a fleet of 12 of these aircraft. The last ones were decommissioned between 1986 and 1988. The tugboat RR-19 ended up serving in the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar and was decommissioned from the Navy on April 30, 1977. Today, a small monument located next to the sports field of the Naval Academy (ENM), representing a Bell 47, commemorates those first Navy helicopter crews, with this inscription: "To the first crews and helicopters based at this Naval Academy in 1954. Marín 1979."

Bibliography:

• "El Arma Aérea a partir de 1954", by Saturnino Suanzes Fernández de Cañete. Armada Española.
• "La Flotilla de Aeronaves". Armada Española.
• "Cien años de la Aviación Naval española". Armada Española.
• "Escuelas de la Armada. Origen y evolución". Armada Española.
• "Bell 47G", by Alfonso Figueroa. Revista Naval.
• "Remolcadores de Rada Clase RR-10", at TodoAvante.es.

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Photos: Armada Española / Elentir.