Instructors from 705 Squadron

The Sharks were formed at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall in 1975 by instructors of 705 Naval Air Squadron, the Royal Navy’s basic helicopter training unit. They flew the Westland/Aérospatiale Gazelle HT2 in red training colours, and the first season was flown as a six-aircraft routine. The eight-minute sequence was built on opposition manoeuvres, bringing rotor blades to within about fifteen feet of each other at closing speeds of over 200 mph. At the time few helicopter display teams existed anywhere.

Praa Sands and the four-ship

On 13 June 1977 two of the team’s Gazelles, XX415 and XW859, collided during a six-aircraft practice over the sea near Praa Sands; three men were killed, the pilot and passenger of one aircraft and the pilot of the other. The 1977 season was cancelled. From 1978 the team was reorganised around four aircraft, a size judged better suited to helicopter display flying, with a solo element integrated into the sequence.

The end in 1992

Through the 1980s the Sharks were a fixture of the British summer and flew abroad as well; the team displayed at 30 airshows in 1986 and at 36 events at home and abroad in 1987, according to a 2021 history by one of its founding pilots. A government answer in Parliament in 1992 put the cost of the 1991–92 programme at about £139,000. The team was disbanded after the 1992 season for economic reasons. Royal Navy helicopter display flying returned in 2001 with the Lynx pair that became the Black Cats.