Canada’s Sea King helicopters celebrate 50 years of service

So what important events took place in August 1963?

Britain's Great Train Robbery netted the equivalent of $7.3 million. The Beatles first released "She Loves You." Martin Luther King Jr. made his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of Washington's Lincoln Memorial.

And Canada's navy took delivery of its first Sikorsky Sea King helicopters.

Most of the notorious Great Train Robbers were eventually caught and imprisoned; the Beatles broke up more than four decades ago and Rev. King was assassinated in 1968.

But the venerable Sea King is still with us, celebrating 50 years of service long after its replacement was supposed to arrive. Celebrations were planned for Thursday (the day the first two arrived) and Friday, CBC News reported, though you'd be right to suspect the navy would have preferred not to have them.

[ Related: Adventures and mishaps recalled from 50 years of flying military's Sea Kings ]

The long-delayed Sikorsky Cyclone was supposed to have arrived in 2008 but now aren't expected to arrive until 2017.

As CBC News noted last year, the initial contract to buy new helicopters dates from 1992 but it was cancelled the following year as too costly and the procurement process was started from scratch.

Sikorsky eventually won the fresh bidding competition but development problems and missed deadlines have plagued the program, forcing the increasingly fragile Sea Kings to soldier on.

[ Related: Fleet of Sea King helicopters grounded after accident at CFB Shearwater ]

"This is the worst procurement in the history of Canada, including the $500-million cancellation costs that are attached to the Maritime helicopter program (in 1993) and then the costs of further maintenance to fly 50-year-old helicopters," Defence Minister Peter MacKay said last year.

"They're going to go right out of aviation service and into the museum in Ottawa. And that's not a joke."

Canada bought 41 Sea Kings in the 1960s, intended mainly to help Canadian destroyers hunt Soviet submarines. Since then, their role has evolved, including work enforcing a blockade during the 1990 Persian Gulf War and again in 2003, fisheries patrols and delivering humanitarian assistance at home and abroad.

One of the Sea King's biggest moments in the international spotlight came in 2011, when Prince William, an RAF Sea King search-and-rescue pilot, demonstrated a water landing at the controls of Canadian Sea King during his visit to Prince Edward Island.

But a lot of publicity for the Sea Kings over the last few years has been negative.

As they aged, the Sea Kings were plagued by accidents and mechanical failures, with the fleet grounded just two weeks ago after one of the helicopters toppled over on landing.

In one 2003 incident, a Sea King crashed into the deck of HMCS Iroquois after losing stability. Three years later, a Sea King crashed into the water as it prepared to land on HMCS Athabaskan, the crew escaping with minor injuries.

One of the commemorations Thursday was for the 10 Canadians who died operating the Sea King.

[ Related: Military remembers Sea King pilots who died in accidents over past five decades ]

Former Sea King crew members recounted for The Canadian Press some of the harrowing incidents they experienced but nonetheless expressed admiration for it.

"It's not a sports car," former Sea King pilot John Orr, who wrote a history of the aircraft, told CP. "It's a truck, but it's reliable like a truck and it's very utilitarian like a truck.

"What constantly amazes me is how the people -- the technicians and the air crew -- have been able to keep this thing going and doing a good job."