I don’t think I’m confused. The French railways started experiments with the Turmo IIIF in 1966, well before the Makila was thought of. They started running the first turbine powered trains in 1970 between Paris-Cherbourg/Caen.
The first Puma with ‘Super Puma’ painted on the side was at Marignane when I looked over it in 1977. It was one of the original mid 60s 330 prototypes with the semi flat windscreens and big snout a la Huey. It had Makilas, single wheeled U/C, and interestingly, a fuselage plug at the back instead of the front. They also had a Puma with a fenestron but they didn’t seem to want to talk about that.
Bristows didn’t have a lot of choice with the undercarriage, that’s how it came. A French Navy requirement, it was standardized throughout the range. That is why it has a 5 metres/sec (900 ft/min) landing capability, kneeling U/c to fit into ships' hangers and lashing hooks on the side.
But it still had to fit inside a railway truck.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 24th January 2008 at 01:59.