Helicopters of DC

A viewing guide to the helicopters flying over Washington, DC

Be sure to also check out the fantastic CopterSpotter program (Twitter | Telegram | Annual Report), which shares live reports of sightings. More details below.

Commonly Seen

US Marine Corps: HMX-1 Squadron (Marine One) US Marine Corps: HMX-1 Squadron (Marine One)
US Marine Corps: HMX-1 Squadron - (Upcoming Marine One) US Marine Corps: HMX-1 Squadron - (Upcoming Marine One)
US Marine Corps: HMX-1 Squadron (Osprey) US Marine Corps: HMX-1 Squadron (Osprey)
US Park Police: Aviation Unit US Park Police: Aviation Unit
Metropolitan Police Department: Air Support Unit Metropolitan Police Department: Air Support Unit
US Coast Guard: Air Station Atlantic City US Coast Guard: Air Station Atlantic City
US Army: 12th Aviation Battalion US Army: 12th Aviation Battalion
US Air Force: 1st Helicopter Squadron US Air Force: 1st Helicopter Squadron
US Customs and Border Patrol: Air and Marine Operations US Customs and Border Patrol: Air and Marine Operations
Washington Hospital Center: MedSTAR Washington Hospital Center: MedSTAR
Children's National: SkyBear Children's National: SkyBear
Maryland State Police Maryland State Police
Prince Georges County Police Prince Georges County Police

DC’s Community Helicopter Tracking Platform

Since 2020, Andrew Logan’s CopterSpotter system (@HelicoptersofDC on Twitter/Telegram) has collected over 17,000 user submitted helicopter sightings. In April 2022 they rolled out a computer vision program that gives instant answers to residents wondering “What’s that helicopter?” You can browse their dataset above, or hit the “+” to submit a sighting. Check out his amazing annual reports to learn much more. You can learn more about the project in Andrew’s Def Con Talk.

Photo Credits for this page

Washington Hospital Center: MedSTAR US Army: 12th Aviation Battalion
Metropolitan Police Department: Air Support Unit US Coast Guard: Air Station Atlantic City
Children's National: SkyBear US Marine Corps: HMX-1 Squadron
US Air Force: 1st Helicopter Squadron US Park Police: Aviation Unit
HMX-1 (VH-92)</td> HMX-1 (Osprey)</td> </tr> </table> #### Disclaimers * This website is inspired by and [entirely made possible](https://helicoptersofdc.com/credits/) by the really neat and generous work of websites like [Foxtrot Alpha](https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/) and folks like [u/celocanth13](https://www.reddit.com/user/celocanth13), as well as several other generous folks that I've outlined [in the credits](https://helicoptersofdc.com/credits/). * I'm sure I've got some errors on this website and that they are of my own doing. Please let me know if you see anything wrong by [filing an issue](https://github.com/gbinal/dc-helicopters/issues) and I'll try to correct it asap. :) * I'm aiming for both beginner and expert audiences here, but I'm sure I'll often miss that sweet spot. Thanks for putting up with the attempted balance. * For practical purposes, I'm keeping the focus of this site on DC proper. There's a good number of really neat VA and MD helicopters as well and sometimes the line blurs but for now, I'm going to try and keep focused on only those that end up flying in DC itself. * A reasonable person may ask if it's irresponsible to bring more attention to some of this information. I've gone back and forth on the matter before but subscribe to the criteria articulated in a [2005 Federal Geographic Data Committee - Homeland Security Working Group presentation](https://web.archive.org/web/20101122205653/http://www.emforum.org/vforum/lc051116.htm) on this topic. It's a great talk and I recommend it for your consideration.