Originally Posted by
Nigel Osborn
I think the Westland Chief pilot in 61 might have been Slim Sears who I believe flew Spitfires during WW2. I met Slim at the 64 Farnborough air show & he kindly took myself & a girl out to dinner that week!
Ciao Nigelo !!
Your memory faileth you not ..
Flight, 7th September 1961
Another town which has close links with its local aircraft company is Yeovil, 40 miles south of Bristol in the neighbouring county of Somerset. Westland Aircraft, which before and during the Second World War made fixed-wing aeroplanes of unorthodox and adventurous design, now concentrate entirely on helicopters and in this regard have commercial links with Bristol; for what used to be the helicopter division of Bristol Aircraft, at Weston-super-Mare, is now the Bristol Division of Westland. There was similar hiving-off from Fairey Aviation in the formation of the Westland Group, giving a Fairey Division at Hayes. The Saunders-Roe division is at Eastleigh, Southampton, and Cowes in the Isle of Wight.
As a result of this integration of all helicopter interests in the United Kingdom, Westland now have a most impressive list of test pilots. Heading it is W. H. ("Slim") Sear, group chief test pilot, with headquarters at Yeovil. At White Waltham, where the Fairey division carries out test flying, is W. R. Gellatly, deputy group chief test pilot; deputy chief test pilot at the division is J. O. Matthews. In the Saunders-Roe division there are two centres of activity, at Eastleigh where Ken Reid is chief test pilot, and at Cowes where a similar position is held by Peter Lamb. Then at Weston-super-Mare, the Bristol division, "Sox" Hosegood is chief test pilot and P. R. Wilson his deputy.
Each of these Westland centres has its team of able and experienced rotating-wing pilots. At Yeovil are John Fay, chief instructor to the Westland helicopter training unit, Leo De Vigne (whose present responsibility is the Gnome Whirlwind), Derek Colvin, Ron Crayton and Jack Fraser. At Waltham is J. G. P. Morton, who in addition to the Rotodyne still does a lot of Gannet flying; at Weston-super-Mare, D. F. Farquharson and R. Smith (as in my late godfather); at the Saunders-Roe division, J. J. M. Jeffery and H. Phillips.
A couple of illustrations from the same article:
Test flying a Westland Whirlwind south of Yeovil airfield near the war memorial on Ham Hill
A Westland Wessex at Yeovil having a compass swing near the control tower and test pilots' offices
Nigelo .. I would say, looking at the photo, that there is indeed every chance that it was 'Slim' at the controls with the Aussie Defence Minister:
W.H. 'Slim' Sear
W.H. 'Slim' Sear mounting a Westland Wessex
Originally Posted by
bast0n
Savoia: The picture of the Hoverfly at Abingdon above does not ring true for a Sikorsky helicopter as there is no pool of hydraulic and other fluids under it..........
The ground crew (which had literally moments before manoeuvered the craft into position) can be seen beneath the Hoverfly's tail rotor heaving on a rope pulling another aircraft into place!
