Some years ago we were on a joint Puma & Chinook exercise - as usual there was more than a little "banter". A certain Chinook senior officer (an antipodean) and I (flying a Puma) were in a minibus being driven out to our respective aircraft at a major airport in Germany. He was (predictably) asking me what it felt like to be flying a "plastic" helicopter (he was ex Wessex).
I replied that at least if the rear rotor failed I had a chance of getting it on the ground safely, rather than the twin rotor systems clashing, all the blades coming off and subsequently being a passenger in something that looked and flew like a ballistic railway carriage. As we got to his aircraft I noticed the hull letters of his Chinook..."BR" (British Rail) and we both laughed out loud!
