Dangermouse - you are quite correct that single wheels will only work with the frigate deck handling system but that is not the reason that the Merlin HM Mk 1 has single wheels. Once upon a time the Merlin Mk 1 design included twin wheels - if you think about the redundancy, safety issues and ability to land on weaker surfaces (with the current Merlin max weight it is currently very limited where it can land and taxi - and I mean at airports too!) it would make sense to have twin wheels would it not? Then somewhere in the procurement process the MOD were looking to make some savings measures as they apparently ran out of cash one year - so they opted to save some money by only fitting single main wheels - then they designed the deck handling system around that design and now it's much too expensive to revert to the safer and more operationally desireable twin wheels as the handling system would need to be completely redesigned! This is very typical of most MOD projects!
The Ferret
