Bell TH-57 Sea Ranger
The JetRanger as the US Navy's primary helicopter trainer — first rotary-wing aircraft for generations of naval aviators · In service 1968 · Retired 2025
In January 1968 the US Navy bought 40 commercial Bell 206As as its primary helicopter trainer, the TH-57A Sea Ranger, to train Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and allied helicopter pilots. They were later replaced by JetRanger III-based models: 45 TH-57Bs for visual-flight primary training and 71 TH-57Cs with cockpits equipped for instrument training.
Flown mainly by Training Air Wing Five at NAS Whiting Field, Florida, the Sea Rangers taught students everything from basic hovering to deck landings on the training carrier USS Lexington and on the IX-514 helicopter landing trainer in Pensacola Bay. A planned digital-cockpit TH-57D upgrade reached only two aircraft before it was cancelled in 2012.
From 2021 the Leonardo TH-73A Thrasher replaced the TH-57 at Whiting Field. The Navy concluded TH-57 training in 2025, and on 19 September 2025 TH-57C BuNo 162668 made the type's final flight, landing outside the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.
