CH-53E Super Stallion
ICAO H53SThe heaviest helicopter in the Western world, with three engines and seven rotor blades. Live CH-53E and CH-53K positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30sAirframe
- Manufacturer
- Sikorsky
- Role
- Heavy-lift helicopter
- Class
- H3T — Helicopter, 3 turboshaft engines
- Crew
- 5
- First flight
- 1 March 1974
- In service
- 1981
Operators airborne
About the CH-53E Super Stallion
The Super Stallion is what you use when a Chinook is not enough. Three engines, a seven-blade main rotor and a lift capacity of around fifteen tonnes slung underneath make it the heaviest helicopter outside Russia, and the only one in American service able to recover a downed aircraft in one piece.
The Marine Corps flies it from amphibious ships, and the MH-53E Sea Dragon variant tows minesweeping gear through the water behind it — a job nothing else in the fleet can do.
Its replacement, the CH-53K King Stallion, shares this designator and is effectively a new aircraft: new engines, composite blades, fly-by-wire, and roughly triple the useful load. Deliveries began in 2022.
Callsign prefixes
- NAVY
- US Navy and Marine Corps flights
- DUSTY
- A recurring Marine heavy-lift block
How to recognise it
- —Three engines — two forward and one behind the rotor mast. The earlier CH-53 has two.
- —A seven-blade main rotor, and a tail fin canted sharply to one side.
- —Very large, with sponsons along the fuselage and a rear ramp.
Common questions
+ How is the CH-53E different from the CH-53 Sea Stallion?
A third engine, a seven-blade rotor instead of six, and a much greater lift capacity. The earlier two-engine aircraft appear on this site under a separate designator.
+ What is the CH-53K King Stallion?
The current production model, with new engines, composite rotor blades and fly-by-wire controls. It can lift roughly three times what the original CH-53 could and shares this designator.
+ What does the MH-53E Sea Dragon do?
Airborne mine countermeasures. It tows a sled through the water to detonate or cut naval mines, using the aircraft's exceptional power to drag the equipment behind it.