US Navy (USN) officials have marked the official retirement of the Bell TH-57 Sea Ranger training helicopter following its replacement by the Leonardo TH-73A Thrasher.
Entering service in the late 1960s as the original A-model variant, the single-engined type, derived from the commercial Bell 206, served as the USN’s primary training platform until late last year.
Latterly operated in its newer B- and C-model guises, the TH-57 was based at NAS Whiting Field in Florida and trained pilots for the US Navy, US Marine Corps and US Coast Guard.
A ‘sundown ceremony’ to mark the legacy type’s withdrawal from service was held at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida on 27 January where the TH-57C made its final landing; the museum already houses an A-model helicopter.
The Sea Ranger is being replaced by the AW119Kx-based TH-73A, of which 128 of a planned 130 examples are now in service, FlightGlobal’s World Air Forces Directory records. Deliveries of the Thrasher, built at the airframer’s US site in Philadelphia, began in 2021.
“As we bid farewell to the TH-57, we honour a legacy that has shaped generations of naval aviators,” says Captain Kenneth M Kerr, commodore of Training Air Wing 5.
“While we close this chapter, we look forward with great optimism to the future as the TH-73A ushers in a new era of advanced training and capability for our students.”
