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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1030.PDF
FLIGHT International, 9 April 1964 583 with large apertures and relatively long exposures on a grey March afternoon. Stability and freedom from vibration were such as to cause him no difficulty in achieving sharp pictures. Normal cruising speed of the HC.2, with about 65 per cent power and a total consumption for both the 1,350 h.p. Bristol Siddeley Gnomes of 800Ib/hr, is lOOkt, with a maximum of 115kt up to 12,6001b weight, and HOkt up to 13,1001b. Sixteen armed troops, or 12 fully-equipped paratroops, can be carried in the main compartment, with the helicopter crewman (a new aircrew category) acting as dispatcher in the latter case. The squadron is being cleared for paratrooping now; this is rather a specialist application for helicopters and unlikely to be often used. The procedure when dropping will be to maintain a forward speed of about 40kt, thereby directing rotor downwash partly rearwards and not hindering the deployment of parachutes. The altitude will be the 800ft normal to fixed-wing paratrooping aircraft. A more likely method of disgorging troops when the aircraft is unable to land is down a rope attached to the winch bracket which is a standard fitment. When necessary the Wessex can be armed, for defensive purposes, simply by sticking one machine gun out of the co-pilot's window, for portside coverage, and another through the main door, for starboard. Operating the latter will be the crewman's job*—one of a number which this jack-of-all-trades must perform. No 18 Sqn's crewmen are recruited, as an interim measure, from its ground crews but shortly the squadron will be receiving a number of ex- Argosy and Hastings air engineers for crewman training. Apart from their quartermaster and dispatching duties, and stints at gunnery if this is ever necessary, crewmen will be responsible for servicing their aircraft when away from base, en tactical deploy- ments, up to primary inspection. External weapons beams, for mounting short-range air-to- ground and anti-tank weapons, can be fitted on the main under- carriage legs if necessary, but one senses a reluctance, as far as 38 Group is concerned, to consider risking extremely useful trans- port helicopters in offensive roles which are probably better performed by ground-attack aircraft. RAF intensive trials with the Wessex began last August, when a four-aircraft trials unit was formed at Odiham with Sqn Ldr Browning as one of its members. Around a nucleus provided by the trials unit the squadron was officially reformed on January 27— during its last period of existence it had been at the other end of the RAF spectrum, flying Valiants—and its aircraft began arriving in a steady stream on February 9. By the last week in March it was ready to display its prowess to the Press, with a full complement of aircraft (13) and almost a full complement of pilots. As the first Wessex unit it is undertaking its own operational conversion training and five pilots were still under instruction at the end of The Wessex can carry 4,6001b slung loads. Here it uses only about half its capacity in hoisting a Land-Rover. In the doorway a helicopter crewman adopts a prone position to supervise the hoist. . . . .. while RAF Regiment troops become supine to show the Wessex in the casualty evacuation role. Eight stretchers can be carried in two strap- suspended banks of four On parade—all but one of the squadron's 13-aircraft complement. Pilot establishment is just over one per aircraft
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