Brantly v Hiller v Hughes v Bell
Re: Sav’s picture of Brantly B2 G-ASHJ (http://www.pprune.org/6822427-post1099.html)
This aircraft appears to have been imported to take part in the evaluation to find a light recce helo for the British Army in the early 1960s, which ended up in the Sioux purchase.
According to a book by Vic Flintham, the Brantly B2A & B was pitched against the Hiller UH-12E (a/c believed borrowed from the Fleet Air Arm), the Hughes 269A, and the Bell 47G-3B-1.
The competition trials were conducted in 1962 and 1963 by the A&AEE, in the UK and Libya. Hot & high conditions where the 47G might have performed well versus the others?
The Hughes were sponsored by Westland (in addition to the 47G), the Brantlys sponsored by BEAS,and the Hillers by Shorts.
From this Flight article (1964 | 0793 | Flight Archive), it looks like it was narrowed down to the 47G (cost then £18k, £317k now!) versus the 12E (£22k then, £388k now).
Westland won with the 47G, price being a decider, and also the fact that they had more helicopter manufacturing experience than Shorts.
Here are the a/c involved (from the UKSerials website):
S/n - UK mil serial - Type - Details
42-0066 XS349 Hughes 269 A Ex G-ASBL, ex G-17-1, d/d 13/07/1962, to XS684 21/06/1963
42-0066 XS684 Hughes 269 A Ex G-ASBL, ex G-17-1, XS349, to G-ASBL, w/o 27/10/1964 at Fairlop
52-0081 XS685 Hughes 269 A Ex G-ASBD, ex G-17-2, to G-ASBD, w/o 01/08/1981 at South Driffield
315 XS681 Brantly B2 A Ex G-ASHK, d/d 26/06/1963, to G-ASHK, w/o 18/12/1969 Newport Pagnall
303 XS682 Brantly B2 A Aircraft not required for evaluation, serial n.t.u.
319 XS683 Brantly B2 B Ex G-ASHJ, d/d 18/07/1963, to G-ASHJ, canx. 26/09/1984
One Hughes had 2 different military serials, for some reason.
I couldn’t find which Bell 47G(s) were used in the competition.
The eventual order was for 281 Sioux. The first 50 were off the Agusta line - seemingly for speed, as Agusta was already building the 47G, and the lower labour rates in Italy seem to have been a factor, according "Flight".
Also IIRC Westland had a restriction in their agreement with Sikorsky, meaning they couldn’t licence-build aircraft from any of Sikorsky's US competitors - but licence-building a Italian licence-built version of one of their competitor's a/c was OK!
Then another 183 off the Westland line, all being Sioux AH1s for the Army & Marines, apart from 15 x HT2s for the RAF. Westland also built 16 x 47G-4As for Bristow to train AAC crews at Middle Wallop.