"Westland helicopters." Topic

It was the Yeovilton Air day today and Yeovil being the home of Westlands was just thinking about their helicopters. The Whirlwind, Wessex and Sae King were obviously built under license from Sikorsky. The Gazelle and Puma in collaberation with the French. What about the Scout, Lynx and the Merlin?

Lynx is a totally Westland design (i.e. designed before Augusta came into the picture).

The Merlin is essentially an EH-101 designed by AUgusta/Westland (so a joint venture).

The Scout is, iirc, also an older Westland design prior to Augusta involvement.

From a couple of Janes aircraft guides:

The Merlin (aka EH-101) is a joint project between Westland and Augusta of Italy.

The Lynx in collaboration with the French. It was produced under the same 1967 Anglo-French helicopter agreement as the Puma and Gazelle, the French army cancelled their order but the French navy bought 31.

The Scout and Wasp are Westland although developed from the Saunders-Roe P351 design.

I worked on both Lynx and Merlin and can confirm that the Lynx was, and remains (is Super Lynx and Wildcat – the upgrade for the UK) a Westland designed and built product. Merlin started as a purely Westland product but became an joint Anglo-Italian programme. This was chiefly because, at the time the UK was keen to establish its 'European Credentials' and was looking for programmes, both civil and military, that it could do jointly with other members of the EU. Originally the aim was to produce a ship borne helicopter for maritime missions, e.g. anti-submarine. This version is the Merlin Mk1. Later, when it was decided that the British Army needed more medium/heavy lift helicopters a Mk3 version was produced for land based missions. A corporate vehicle called European Helicopter Industries (EHI) was set up to manage the joint Anglo-Italian programme but both the Italians and the UK became disatisfied with its performance and Lockheed Martin were brought in to oversee them. There is a story, I don't know how true it is, that the designation EH101 (this was what the Merlin was called originally) was the result of a typing error. The manuscript, allegedly, read EHI01 – which makes sense as this was the first aircraft produced by EHI – but it was mistyped and came out as EH101! This was reproduced on masses of documentation before it was spotted and so it stuck. I tend to believe in ***k ups rather than conspiracies and so I am inclined to believe the story.

The Lynx in collaboration with the French. It was produced under the same 1967 Anglo-French helicopter agreement as the Puma and Gazelle, the French army cancelled their order but the French navy bought 31.

Ah I wondered about that. It seems that those 3 are nominally collaberations – the impression I get is that the Puma and Gazelle were French designed and the the Lynx was a UK design. Based on the fact that the French bought the Puma and Gazelle, but only the naval Lynx! :-)

I think you are right that the Lynx was a Westland design, Janes just describes it as in collaboration with the French but I suspect that just means Aérospatiale received a share of the manufacturing (which is normally what you expect if the French navy bought it). The French army intended to buy it but didn't for a variety of reasons.

There was also the ill-fated WG30, larger than a lynx but smaller than Merlin. UK designed to meet an MoD requirement, then cancelled by the incoming Thatcher government (and the cause of much worry to the company and families like mine that worked there).