Hi Guys,
If you thought the version of the Belvedere that was issued to the squadrons was bad, you should have tried the development version!!!
I went from Northolt in a Sycamore of the Met' Comm Sqdn. to Odiham where the development flight had just been set up. We were invited to fly the beast and that version had wooden blades, al la Sycamore, and no power controls, only bungees!! 20mins was about all you could take before giving the beast to the other guy.
This was about the time that Westlands and Bristol were merging and I believe Westlands/Sikorsky had the power control issue tied up in patents.
The later ones were easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Speedbird 48.