Westland Helicopters was a British

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology ind ...

. Originally Westland Aircraft, the company focused on

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

s after the Second World War. It was amalgamated with several other British firms in 1960 and 1961. In 2000, it merged with Italian helicopter manufacturer Agusta to form AgustaWestland. In 2016, AgustaWestland merged into

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard. People Notable people with the name include: * Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian Renaissance scientist ...

, where it became the company's helicopters division under the Leonardo Helicopters brand.

History

Origins

Westland Aircraft was founded in 1935 when

Petters Limited Petters Limited (known as JB Petter & Sons of Yeovil until 1910), were a maker of stationary petrol and diesel engines from 1896 onwards.Petter, Percival. ''The Story of Petters Limited'' (Westbury: David Edgington, 1989) In 1915 Petter founded ...

split its aircraft manufacturing from its aircraft engine concerns. During the Second World War the company produced military aircraft including the

Lysander Lysander (; grc-gre, Λύσανδρος ; died 395 BC) was a Spartan military and political leader. He destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, forcing Athens to capitulate and bringing the Peloponnesian War to an en ...

, the Whirlwind and the Welkin. After the war, the company began to build helicopters under a licensing agreement with Sikorsky. From the mid-1950s the company came to increasingly concentrate on helicopters, eventually to the exclusion of other types. Production started with the Sikorsky S-51, which became the

Westland Dragonfly The Westland WS-51 Dragonfly helicopter was built by Westland Aircraft and was an Anglicised licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-51. Design and development On 19 January 1947 an agreement was signed between Westland Aircraft and ...

, flying for the first time in 1948 and entering service with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

and

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

in 1953. Westland developed an improved version, the Widgeon, which was not a great success. Success with the Dragonfly was repeated with the Sikorsky S-55 which became the Whirlwind, and a re-engined Sikorsky S-58 in both turboshaft and turbine engine powered designs as the Wessex.

1960s

The chairmanship of Eric Mensforth from 1953–1968 marked the start of the transition, which was aided by the government when in 1959–1961 they forced the merger of the 20 or so aviation firms into three groups.

British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 19 ...

and Hawker Siddeley Group took over fixed-wing designs, while the helicopter divisions of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

, Fairey and

Saunders-Roe Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aero- and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. History The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliott Verdon Roe (see Avro) and John Lord took a ...

(with their

hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull, or air cushion, ...

) were merged with Westland to form Westland Helicopters in 1961. heli

Westland inherited the Saro Skeeter helicopter, a development of the Cierva W.14 Skeeter and the Fairey Rotodyne compound gyroplane design. They continued to develop the latter, terminating their own Westland Westminster large transport design. The company continued to produce other aircraft under licence from Sikorsky ( Sea King) and Bell ( Sioux). They also produced their own designs: the Westland Scout and its naval variant the Westland Wasp from the P.531, which found favour with the Army Air Corps and

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wi ...

respectively. In the late 1960s, the company began a collaboration with

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale (), sometimes styled Aerospatiale, was a French state-owned aerospace manufacturer that built both civilian and military aircraft, rockets and satellites. It was originally known as Société nationale industrielle aérospatiale ...

to manufacture three new helicopters, the Aérospatiale Puma, Aérospatiale Gazelle and

Westland Lynx The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose twin-engined military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led t ...

, with the last being a Westland design.

1970s

Through Saunders-Roe, Westland became first a part owner then, from 1970, the sole owner of the

British Hovercraft Corporation British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC) was a British hovercraft manufacturer that designed and produced multiple types of vehicles for both commercial and civil purposes. Created with the intention of producing viable commercial hovercraft in March ...

, subsequently trading as Westland Aerospace. Most designs were Saunders-Roe or Saunders-Roe derivatives. For many years Westland owned the main London heliport at Battersea.

1980s

The company gradually fell into unprofitability. Sikorsky approached with a bail-out deal in 1985 that split the

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and led to the resignation of Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine in January 1986 over the fate of Britain's sole helicopter manufacturer. The split, which became known as the Westland affair, was over whether to push the company into a European deal or accept the US company's offer. Eventually, the link with Sikorsky was accepted. This saw both Sikorsky and Fiat acquire minority shareholdings in Westland. In 1988 GKN bought a 22% share of Westland from Hanson plc and Fiat. In 1984, Westland proposed the WG 44 light attack helicopter based on the Lynx dynamics, incorporating

low observable Stealth technology, also termed low observable technology (LO technology), is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive and active electronic countermeasures, which covers a range of methods used to make personnel, aircraft, ships, subm ...

technologies derived from its SUPERVISOR and PHOENIX UAS projects experience in 1977–1983. In 1987, in parallel with the Agusta A129 supported by Westland,

Fokker Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 ...

, MBB and CASA, its WG 47 development was completed as a confidential private venture with a faceted fuselage, internal weapons and twin canted tail rotors. A side-exiting

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of Light, visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from ...

suppressor integrated the exhausts and its tandem cockpit with the pilot in front had transparencies angled outward to eliminate optical glint. This presaged the US Army Boeing–Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche, rolled out in 1995 and cancelled in 2004, while the fuselage shaping was retained for the NH90.

1990s

In the 1990s, the company returned to profitability and grew as a result of several major contracts from the UK Ministry of Defence for EH101 Merlin helicopters and for 67 licence-built

Boeing AH-64 Apache The Boeing AH-64 Apache () is an American twin- turboshaft attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement and a tandem cockpit for a crew of two. It features a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night v ...

attack helicopters, designated the WAH-64 and entering full operational service in 2005. westland apache wah-64d longbow zj206 arp

In April 1994, Westland became a wholly owned subsidiary of GKN. In 2000 GKN and Finmeccanica agreed to merge their Westland and Agusta helicopter subsidiaries into a joint venture, Agusta Westland. GKN contributed Westland, its 50% share in its EH Industries (EHI) joint venture with Finmeccanica, the GKN aerospace transmissions business, and a 50% share in Aviation Training International. Finmeccanica contributed Agusta, including its transmissions and structures business, its share of EHI, its share of NH Industries, and its share of Bell Helicopter Textron. On 26 May 2004, GKN confirmed that it had agreed to sell its share of AgustaWestland to Finmeccanica for £1.06 billion. The sale was approved by the British government in October 2004. The former Westland site at the now unused airfield in Weston-super-Mare houses The Helicopter Museum featuring a number of examples of Westland aircraft.

Products

Helicopters

* WS-51 -

* WS-55 - Westland Whirlwind * Westland Widgeon * WG-58 -

Westland Wessex The Westland Wessex is a British-built turbine-powered development of the Sikorsky H-34 (in US service known as Choctaw). It was developed and produced under licence by Westland Aircraft (later Westland Helicopters). One of the main chang ...

* Westland Westminster (1958) – prototype stage only * Westland Scout * Westland Wasp * Westland Sioux * WS-61 -

Westland Sea King The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engi ...

Westland Puma Westland or Westlands may refer to: Places *Westlands, an affluent neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi, Kenya * Westlands, Staffordshire, a suburban area and ward in Newcastle-under-Lyme *Westland, a peninsula of the Shetland Mainland near Vaila ...

* Westland Gazelle * WG.13 -

* WG.30 - Westland 30 * EHI EH101 * Westland WAH-64 Apache *

Bristol Belvedere The Bristol Type 192 Belvedere is a British twin-engine, tandem rotor military helicopter built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was designed by Raoul Hafner for a variety of transport roles including troop transport, supply dropping and cas ...

* Fairey Rotodyne

Hovercraft

* GKN Westland AP1-88

Rockets and missiles

* Black Arrow

Precision gears

* Airship Industries Skyship 500 - transmission system

Unmanned aerial vehicles

* Westland Mote *

Westland Wisp The Westland Wisp was an unmanned coaxial helicopter developed by Westland Helicopters it was powered by a pair of 5hp Korba twin cylinder two-stroke engine A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine th ...

* Westland Wideye

References

* James, Derek N. ''Westland: A History''. Gloucestershire UK: Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2002. . * Mondey, David. ''Westland (Planemakers 2)''. London: Jane's Publishing Company, 1982. . * James, Derek N. 'Westland Aircraft since 1915'. London: Putnam, 1991.

External links

(Leonardo web site)

* Westland at Helis.com : ttp://www.helis.com/timeline/westland.php timelinean
database section
{{Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom . Defunct helicopter manufacturers Helicopter manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom Companies based in Yeovil British companies established in 1961 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1961 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2000 1961 establishments in England 2000 disestablishments in England