SA.316B Alouette III

The Heliflight of the Marine, sometimes called Navyflight, is a very small but dynamical unit, which is a part of the 40e Squadron helicopters. The flight consist of 21 persons and their duty is giving logistic support to the fleet. This is done by three Alouette III helicopters.

The alouette III is a small helicopter made by the French Sud Aviation-Aerospatiale which made his maiden flight on 28 February 1959. The first two helicopters came to Koksijde at 11 March 1971 and the third one on 27 April 1971. They were the successor of the Sikorsky HSS.1 (B7 and B8) of the marine which made their last flight in 1986.

On 4 May 2001, the 30th birthday of the alouette III was celebrated at Koksijde. For this occasion, a special decoration (see picture below) was applied on all the alouette III's and was designed by Nico Defer.

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