On 1 April 1961 the heliflight, the forerunner of the 40th Squadron, was raised at Koksijde. The heliflight existed out of five Sikorsky HSS-1 which were build in France in licence by Sud-Aviation. The first Sikorsky, the OT-ZKD/B4, was delivered together with the OT-ZKE/B5 on 4 May 1961. The third helicopter of the Air Force was the OT-ZKF/B6 which was delivered on 2 February 1962. The two other Sikorsky's, the OT-ZKG/B7, which was delivered on 20 March 1962 and the OT-ZKH/B8, which was delivered on 19 April 1962, were for the Navy.

Two years after the foundation of the SAR-flight, the Short Range Transport Flight was set-up for logistic support, transport over short distances, VIP transport and support with disasters. For that reason, an other five Sikorsky S.58C were bought with SABENA. It were the OT-ZKI/B9, OT-ZKJ/B10, OT-ZKK/B11, OT-ZKL/B12 and ZT-ZKM/B13. These helicopters were delivered between 1963 and the beginning of 1964. In 1969 another two ex.Sabena helicopters were bought, the OT-ZKN/B14 and OT-ZKP/B15 and were set in for VVIP transport. In 1974 the heliflight was renamed into 40th Squadron Helicopters.

Between 30 January 1975 and 10 June 1976, the five remaining S.58C were sold to Germany. The remaining HSS-1 (B4, B5, B6 and B8) stayed in use for training and transport. The B4 did its last flight on 5 december 1984. This Sikorsky is still at Koksijde and is being used as static display on various events. The B6 did its last flight on 10 May 1979 and can still be seen in the Brussels Air Museum. The B9 made its last official flight on 19 July 1986, and this was also the very last flight of the 'siko' in the Belgian Air Force.

For this event, a special decoration was applied on the OT-ZKH/B8. In 1991 this sikorsky was placed at the entrance of the base and the special tail for the last flight is still on it.

One Of the five solled S.58C to Germany is still flying. The helicopter, ex-OT-ZKP/B15, flies as D-HAUB with Meravo Helicopters and is based at the heliport of Oedheim nearby Heilbronn. The Sikorsky OT-ZKK/B11 is preserved at the "Auto Und Technik Museum" of Sinsheim (Germany) as D-HAUF.

• Website: www.meravo-helicopters.de

This Hunter was part of the 7th Wing at Chiévres and arrived at Koksijde at March 21st 1960. Since December 4th 1961 this hunter stands at the base entrance in memory of the period that Koksijde was the airplane cemetery of the Belgian Air Force.

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