British Airways involvement with helicopters started way back with British European Helicopters back in 1947 when BEA set up their Helicopter Experimental Unit and the formation of the Gust research Unit. On the 26th June 1947 the BEA Board decided to order five helicopters from the USA , three S.51s and two Bell 47.
Yeovil was selected as the base. The aircraft made their first appearance on the 28th September 1947 at Hampden Park Glasgow when the S.51s G-AJOR and AKCU were demonstrated.
The Bell 47s were G-AKFA and G-AKFB
As gruntie indicated BEA Helicopters did operate S.61 helicopters from Lands End to the Scillies. the first S.61 flight was flown by G-ASNL commanded by Capt Cameron on the 1st May 1964.
The full history of BEA/BA Helicopter operations, wriiten by Phil Lo Bao, has been published by Air Britain