 Sikorsky chief pilot Jimmy Viner, along with USAAF Captain Jack Beighle flew a Sikorsky R-5 (S-48) to lift the two crew members using the hoist and deposit them safely ashore.The first military helicopter air-sea rescue was carried out in 1946 when a Sikorsky S-51 being demonstrated to the U.S. Navy was used in an emergency to pull a downed Navy pilot from the ocean.The first peacetime air-sea rescue squadron exclusively using helicopters was No.