It was like reversing a caravan into a garage except it was 88ft long, 25ft high, worth hundreds of thousands – and the error margin was three inches.

However, the helicopter fitted perfectly thanks to two weeks of planning, £20,000 and a team of experts. Father-of-two Dave Carr, aged 42, of Holmcroft Estate, Stafford, drove the US Special Forces Sikorsky MH-53 helicopter into the National Cold War Exhibition at RAF Cosford near Wolverhampton yesterday.

He was at the wheel of the Ford Aircraft Tug that hauled the 15-ton monster with a 72ft rotar blade span into position in a nerveless 90-minute exhibition of perfect parking. “I spent years doing this kind of job as an RAF aircraft technician,” he said. “You get used to judging the angles but this was the biggest helicopter I have ever moved.”

The helicopter was pulled 300m from the Cosford conservation centre to the Cold War Museum’s hangar where workers spent three days removing a 120ft end wall to let it in.

Nine guides positioned around the Sikorsky and on a cherry picker shouted instructions as it inched backwards through the hole and under the wing of a priceless Belfast plane. It was carefully threaded past propellers and stanchions before being coaxed into its resting place within touching distance of the 125ft high glass side wall. It marked the end of an amazing journey for a huge aircraft that flew secret missions in the Middle East until taken out of service in September.

It arrived at Cosford still covered in sand and in pieces three months later in the back of an C17 transport plane after being donated by the US military to the RAF Museum.

Museum technician John Gibson, 50, put it back together again without the maintenance manual. The Sikorsky first saw action in Vietnam and has played a key role in a wide variety of theatres of war since then, mainly involved in search and rescue and secret operations.

The helicopter now at Cosford was the only survivor of a batch of four built in the 1970s.

The rest were lost in action.