In the presence of former aircrew and maintainers the navy's best known  Sea King helicopter has been formally inducted into the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Nowra.

Shark 07  began service with the RAN in March 1975 and has clocked up nearly 8500 airframe hours serving in both the Middle East and East Timor.

In  full operational mode with troop seats, radar operators console and machine gun mounting in the cabin door, the helicopter is now on display at the northern end of the museum hanger.

Nowra aged in his 80's , Ed Bell was part of the evaluation team which selected the Sea King for Australian service, and the first commanding officer when they entered service with 817 squadron.

He says no sooner than it was commissioned Shark Zero 7 conducted its first rescue mission

Tanzi Lea from Milton was a Sea King instructor for much of his naval career, and says they were a very versatile aircraft