Wales-Swansea Bay Air Show 2024. Part-Two.

 Westland Wasp.

The second vintage visitor to the Swansea Bay Airshow was the Westland Helicopter, the Wasp was the naval version of the British Army Scout and was used initially for general purpose duties and introduced in 1962, while entering service in 1963, since the potential in naval operations was much needed during the Cold War years!

She could be fitted with two Mk44 torpedoes, but trials following were to upgrade from HAS.1 to more of anti-submarine warfare and the first sixty machines were deployed on various frigates and other shipping across the Royal Navy,

Later over one-hundred machines were fitted with the French AS.11/12 missile systems and other equipment, forty were sold to South-Africa and eleven to its navy, another seventeen went to Brazil.

By 1978 in British service, they were being replaced by the Lynx helicopters and despite this these three to six manned machines remained in service into the 1980;s when they were withdrawn.

Helicopters. Part-Two.

Sea King/S-61 to Eurocopter EC-135/145.

The helicopter in our moder world has become both an essential and invaluable tool. Since last week 9 people were sadly killed, when a EC-135T2 fell out of the skies and hit a pub venue in Glasgow, Scotland. U.K.

But despite this we must not think that helicopters are now dangerous, more people die in the British isles each day in car incidents. They are either at the wheel or are pedestrians, but that does not mean we have to stop driving!

The Eurocopter family were derived from some very succesfull machines such as the Alouette III and the Bolkow BO-105. Both the EC-135 and newer 145 are now widley used across the globe for their versitilty. Police, military, air ambulance, search and rescue, as well as electricity and oil line inspections. 

The Westland Seaking and Sikorsky S-61 soldier on with their long range capability for search and rescue, both at sea and mountains. They have a great ability to operate in severe weather conditions. Yet all machines really operate becuase of the skill of very well trained and astute pilots, who take chances only when needs be. Thank you for them.