Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw

The Sikorsky H-34, company model S-58 and called Choctaw by the US Army, was a piston-engined helicopter that Sikorsky designed as an anti-submarine aircraft for the US Navy by enlarging the H-19 and fitting a Wright Cyclone radial engine. It first flew on 8 March 1954; the Navy ordered it in 1952, the Army in 1955 and the Marine Corps in 1957. It served with the armed forces of 25 countries on every continent and saw combat in Algeria, the Six-Day War and Vietnam. A total of 2,340 were built between 1953 and 1970, including licence production in Britain as the Westland Wessex and in France by Sud Aviation, and a few still work in civil lifting roles.