Westland Wasp Operational

The Westland Wasp entered into service with the Royal Navy in 1963. Its design enabled it to be operated from small ships in poor weather conditions. A total of 98 were built and service continued well into the late 80s.

[@monochromaticlightsource9153]

I remember when you could buy a Westland Wasp as Army surplus from the Exchange and Mart magazine. I really wanted one, but didn't have the £850.00 needed. Bugger.

[@lawrencemartin1113]

Yep, so many great surplus offers that passed us all by due to lack of funds. I quite fancy a Gazelle ......dream on! An elderly chap I worked with at Fairoaks many years ago, remembered, as a young man just starting work at the airfield, helping to take 'surplus' Tiger Moths to the far side of the airfield, stripped of engines and instruments, 'standing' the fuselages up, tail ends together in a cone and burning them! The wings were piled around the lot to add to the cone efficiency of 'disposal'. Just tragic.

[@southwest3671]

@@lawrencemartin1113 interesting! It also shows how much we are attached to material things these days. I remember dog carts, usually for small items. We would now scream animal abuse!

[@ahmadlaibu2739]

When I was young officer, I've been flying this helicopter for over 500 hours. Sweet memories

[@BritishHelicoptersHistory]

Glad it brought some good memories, thanks for watching.

[@guypenrose5477]

This is very early film - none of the aircraft appeared to have the flotation gear rigged. My dad would have loved this - he was the SMR on two Wasp flights; HMS Zulu and HMS Arethusa.

[@southwest3671]

When I was young, I always thought those helicopters were mounted on old Hospital beds.

[@jeffkitney39]

They don't have a swash plate it's a thing called a spider

[@nathonhamilton4524]

and to think that i used to make the wiring looms at hayes for these helicoptors.

[@paulrailton1511]

I would love to be able to put on an English accent like that.

[@thetreblerebel]

I bet landing on a rolling deck is a crazy experience..

[@lawrencemartin1113]

Excellent! What great little helicopters these are. Thanks so much for the link to this from my comments on the Scout film. BTW, I read in PILOT magazine this month that one unlucky Scout owner recently lost his passenger door widow in flight as a result of the rubber sealing gasket failing due to it being perished. I bet that will be expensive! Helicopters, especially vintage Helicopters: a constant never ending requirement for high maintenance and spares and eye wateringly expensive! I used to see the occasional Wasp and Scout pop into Fairoaks when I worked there back in the late eighties. Possibly the first civi owned examples. Thanks for the post.

[@moonmanmoonman6265]

They look a bit cheap and scary ,it’s looks like what a 125cc chicken chaser motorbike does in comparison to its bigger counterparts.

[@guypenrose5477]

The Royal Navy used them in the frontline right up to 1988.

[@allgood6760]

Thanks for this. We operated these choppers with our RNZN 👍🇳🇿

[@เคนน้อยพาที-ง2ฒ]

(TO)Soytong?ตา..

[@dazaspc]

1:37 Hardly a valid form of testing as there is no wind to accompany the moving deck.

[@deepdirtysouth2394]

Plenty of wind when they put to sea. I don’t know about that umbilical cord though.

[@richardclarke3924]

To be fair it was an undercarriage test for not a test of pilot capability or a true simulator.