In June 1972 there was a Puma HC1, XW234 based at Pershore. The trial at that time was a Low Light TV camera looking forward with a TV screen in the cockpit. As there was a lot of work under the aircraft to fit this it was put up on jacks and the undercarriage retracted to give more room. The installation was successful and they had a beautiful picture of the world through the open hangar doors.
They tidied it up, wheeled it out, the crew started it up and switched on the kit.
There was a beautiful picture of the back of the nosewheel.
I was invited to fly this from Pershore to Odiham so that the station wheels could have a looksee. Once airborne one could retract the gear and have a narrow fixed field of view ahead; sufficient for one to get lost immediately after passing over the airfield boundary. Fortunately by using DR one could find the M4 which was going the same way and we arrived at Odiham.
The idea was to see how far it could be flown on the approach before on had to look outside the cockpit. To this end I flew it with the undercarriage retracted towards our dispersal. Unbeknown to me there was a VIP visit to the squadron so there were all these senior officers having kittens and waving furiously. When I eventually lowered the gear their cardiac systems returned to normal.
It was a prototype for the myriad observation systems that are mounted in helicopters nowadays.