In July, we covered the transport of a Sikorsky VH-3A Sea King helicopter from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, to the March Field Air Museum in Riverside for restoration and to be reinstalled at the Nixon Library’s planned Center for American Civics Education, set to be opened in 2028. While this particular helicopter, BuNo 150617, also flew Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford, it has been displayed at the Nixon Library because it is the very same helicopter that carried Nixon from the South Lawn of the White House after he became the only U.S. president to resign from office. Now, VH-3A BuNo 150617 is undergoing what is intended to be its final restoration before going on permanent indoor display after 20 years of outdoor display at the Nixon Library.
As mentioned in our prior article, the helicopter was assigned to Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1) out of Marine Air Facility Quantico, Virginia, but was not only flown by Marine aviators but also by Army helicopter pilots, as the Army and Marines shared the presidential helicopter detail until the Marines were given sole responsibility for the job from 1976 onwards. On August 9, 1974, when Richard Nixon became the only U.S. president to resign from office as a result of the coverup of the Watergate scandal, it was this helicopter that flew Nixon from the South Lawn of the White House to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, for President and First Lady Nixon to board Boeing VC-137B SAM 27000 on the flight home to California.
After being stricken from service in 1976 as HMX-1 accepted their new VH-3D Sea Kings, BuNo 150617 was in the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB from 1976 to 1983, when it was shipped to Naval Air Development Center Warminster, Pennsylvania for use as a ground instructional airframe and as a source of spare parts for other Sea King helicopters on the base. With both its main and tail rotors removed, and cockpit stripped for its instruments, BuNo 150617 was largely forgotten, though it had been transported to the now-closed Quonset Air Museum at Quonset Point Air National Guard Station, North Kingston, Rhode Island, where the pilot who flew Nixon from the White House that day in 1974, Lieutenant Colonel Gene T. Boyer, U.S. Army (Ret.), learned of the helicopter’s condition in 2005, and through his connections with the March Field Air Museum and the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, he organized the arrangements to bring the old helicopter back to California.
In October 2005, the incomplete presidential Sea King was flown to March Air Reserve Base in the cargo hold of a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III of the 452nd Air Mobility Wing, and was restored by the volunteers of the March Field Air Museum, using another surplus Sea King, Sikorsky SH-3G Sea King BuNo 149688, as a parts donor, with BuNo 150617 receiving 149688’s rotors, tail, and instruments. The restored presidential helicopter was then trucked to the Nixon Library and formally dedicated on July 1, 2006, where it was displayed outdoors some 200 feet from the farm house where Richard Nixon was born in 1913.
Although the helicopter received a refurbishment at California Aerofab at Chino Airport, California in 2016 as part of the renovations taking place for the Nixon Library’s rededication, continued outdoor exposure took a toll on the helicopter’s exterior, and the decision was made for the helicopter to be shipped back to the March Field Air Museum for another restoration. One thing that has helped in the collaboration between the March Field Air Museum and the Nixon Library has been that the current director of the March Field Air Museum, Michael Ellzey, had previously served as the Director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum through the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
After being hoisted by a mobile crane onto an oversize load trailer, and despite its main rotor being removed and its tail rotor folded against the fuselage, it took just over 3 hours for the 16 foot tall helicopter with an empty weight of 11,865 lbs. to clear the highway overpasses between Yorba Linda and Riverside, often requiring several detours along the way, but finally, the aircraft would return to the March Field Air Museum.
While the helicopter may be inside the March Field Air Museum’s restoration hangar, the museum has contracted the services of Georgia-based aircraft restorer Gordon Ponsford and his firm Ponsford Ltd to do the work. So far, they have stripped the old paint from BuNo 150617, and since the helicopter’s return to March Field Air Museum on June 29, Ponsford’s target date is for the presidential Sea King to be completed within 18-24 months. One thing that will help in that goal is that the restoration will be primarily focused on the exterior, as the presidential interior is largely complete, and the main concern will be sealing the space for preservation.
Over at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, plans are underway for the Nixon Library’s Center for American Civics Education. This new building will be the centerpiece of what the Nixon Library describes as “an initiative offering interactive programs that deepen public understanding of America’s systems of government.” It is to provide both in-person and online resources for students ranging from elementary school to college, as well as seminars for teachers. These programs will be aided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
In addition to the education resources available, the new Center for American Civics Education building will be the new home for Sikorsky VH-3A Sea King BuNo 150617, as well as a café for museum guests and two cars previously displayed at the old iteration of the Nixon Library before the 2016 rededication: a 1967 Lincoln Continental presidential limousine also used by Presidents Ford and Carter and a “Woody” station wagon replicating the one then-Representative Richard Nixon drove across California on his successful 1950 Senate campaign, just two years before he was then nominated to become Dwight Eisenhower’s running mate in the 1952 presidential election. The new Center for American Civics Education is currently set to open in 2028, and by then, VH-3A Sea King BuNo 150617 is to be completed at the March Field Air Museum, before being trucked back to the Nixon Library to finally go on permanent indoor display and serve once again as a prominent artifact in U.S. presidential history.
