Search and Rescue
helicopters. As helicopters increased their range, open sea landings with fixed wing aircraft began to be considered too risky, and seaplanes slowly fell out of favor in most countries. Helicopters now have the ability to refuel in flight and to reach far out to sea
Overall, improvements in technology have extended rescue ability from within sight of the shore, out hundreds of miles to sea. Countries around the world have established life saving services. Some are military, such as the Coast Guards in the United States and Canada, and some are manned by civilian volunteers, like the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in the United Kingdom and similar institutions in other countries. Many other countries have search and rescue assets organized as part of the Army, Navy, or national police force. The percentage of victims that is now within reach of help is much higher than any time in the past.
The unofficial motto of many life savers is, "You have to go out; you don't have to come back". Rescuers don't really go out with the idea of not coming back, but they do tend to push the limits to make a successful rescue. Sometimes they push right past the limits, and this is why the risk to rescuers remains high. They don't like turning back without survivors on board. Improved technology will allow them to extend their abilities, but won't keep them from trying to extend past those abilities in order to reach someone who needs help.
I've found only a few sites that address the history of life saving services. Of these, http://www.sea-rescue.de/ is one of the better organized private sites.
Life saving services of Great Britain, New Zealand and the United States have some history on their sites at, respectively:
http://www.iwightc.ac.uk/rescue/rnli/beg... http://www.nzcoastguard.org.nz/history.h... http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/SAR_...
And they also have good information on the current state of SAR. Otherwise, history is still better from a book. Refer to the bibliography at the U.S. Coast Guard site for an extensive listing, mostly limited to the U.S. service, though.
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