The HRP-1 was the second helicopter ever flown in the United States and the world's first successful tandem-rotor helicopter. Designated internally as the PV-3, it was the world's largest helicopter in the late 1940s, with enough room for eight passengers and two crew. Frank Piasecki's P-V Engineering Forum produced the HRP during World War II. The company then became the Piasecki Helicopter Corp., and after Piasecki left the company in 1955, it became the Vertol Aircraft Corp., purchased by Boeing in March 1960.

The first recorded search and rescue mission carried out by a Coast Guard HRP-1 occurred on Dec. 31, 1948. The SAR Office at Elizabeth City, N.C., received a request to transport a 14-month-old baby girl, who was suffering from pneumonia, from a remote location at Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the hospital at Elizabeth City. A local newspaper report noted, "Thanks to the Coast Guard, the girl is alive today."