Originally Posted by Savoia
"Check-out the sliding pax door."
Mmm, the early A/B 206s had several military provisions which came as standard; they were built-in on the production line, so you got them anyway, whether you wanted them or not. I had S/Ns 8036 & 8042 in Abu Dhabi in 1970. Whilst they were ostensibly 'VIP transport' there was a hard-point on the cabin longitudinal beam for a pintle-mounted machine gun
There was also another optional fit (which I thought was rather novel); discussed at length with TRC when I joined Manns, though I think he thought I was being economical with the truth. It was an easy exercise to remove the rear seats and install a honeycomb platform with tie-down points for lashing down freight. It also doubled as a service platform with steel lanyards to screws high up on the rear fuselage, adjacent to the engine. (Very useful in the ield, on hi-skids, and that infernal, high-maintenance C18 engine)
And, I might add, the initial tailbooms were skinned with mag-alloy - and operating in that hostile environment...............
There you go, now you know too!! - VFR