just remember the only gearboxes actually DESIGNED by Westland were for the Lynx / WG30. And thats what killed off the WG30 - when they started crashing
Besides which the Westland Foundry was at Hayes, not Yeovil and was transferred to Normalair-Garrett in the 1970's when Hayes was shut - Normalair moved it to Chard and eventually sold it out of the Westland Group completely. Last heard of in Liverpool from memory...
Do Westland now have the plant or skills to actually MAKE a gearbox?
I seem to remember that at one point in the 1970's there were doubts even about the Sea King gearboxes and Westland were considering using Italian ones
As for the Merlin gearbox - just checked Derek James history of the company. the entire transmission is a Fiat design / build
Quote from Dangermouse:
"ONLY when the RN changed the specification of the 101 to include dipping sonar with associated increase in AUM ...."
What?????
The EH101 / Merlin evolved from the WG34 which was ALWAYS intended as a direct Sea King replacement with dipping sonar. In fact Westland were "ready to go" with the WG34 design in around 1977-78 and then had to hold back to allow Italian input and for the MOD to make its mind up. They'd actually been working on it for several years - and then had to hold off for five years or more while everyone else ripped the plans apart. With the further delays in building the prototypes you ended up with something that could have flown in 1980 not appearing till 1986. And then came the Westland crisis...
Last edited by jamesdevice; 26th Jul 2011 at 22:52.