Papa Benedetto

[Savoia]

A small tribute to the outgoing Papa Benedetto XVI .. but whom I shall always remember as Cardinal Ratzinger:




Pope Benedict XVI boards an HMX-1 VH-3D Sea King upon his arrival at JFK International Airport in New York on 18th April 2008 on his way to deliver an address to the UN General Assembly


Pope Benedict XVI arrives at Randwick racecourse, in Sydney, Australia, (via an 'Aussie S-76) for the final mass of World Youth Day on 20th July 2008. He was rumoured to have said: "These Australian helicopters are very small"


Pope Benedict arrives courtesy of an Italian Army (Esercito Italiano) Grifone at the village of Oies, in the Dolomite Alps of north-eastern Italy on 5th August 2008, from where 130 years ago Joseph Freinademetz departed for China to work there as a missionary until his death in 1908


Pope Benedict XVI arrives via Super Puma at the Antoine Beguere stadium in Lourdes, France on 13th September 2008


The Vaticopter approaches Venice on 7th May 2011 carrying Pope Benedict on his official visit to the City


Pope Benedict XVI surveys the Cristo Rey sanctuary from a Mexican Presidential Super Puma as he arrives to lead a celebration of Holy Mass at the Parque del Bicentenario in Silao, Mexico on 25th March 2012


Pope Benedict XVI boards the Vaticopter (aka the Holy See King - an Aeronautica Militare SH-3D/TS) at Rome's Ciampino airport after arriving from Cuba on 29th March 2012. Pope Benedict left Cuba on 28th March at the conclusion of his first trip to Spanish-speaking Latin America which included a visit to Mexico


Pope Benedict XVI makes a night landing (courtesy of an Agusta-supplied 109S) in the courtyard next to Saint John's Basilica in Rome


The Holy Father surveys the successor to the Vaticopter, an AW139. It was rumoured that he said .. "One is not amused"