King of the Junglies to fly again
 

It may not be going back to Afghanistan but what a pedigree (with photos to match!).

With a 'ZA' serial, it is a long way from being 'the oldest helicopter in the forces'. But then it is the 'Sun'.

Collected from Wastelands on the 13th November 1981 must make it one of the youngest of the post Whirlwind/Wessex era. I can think if a pile of Pumas that were around ten years before that. I also seem to remember that the Chinook and RAF SAR Sea Kings were in service before then.......

....and how many Lynx/Gazelle?

Never mind, it's still good to see a RW story in a national rag. With luck, she'll survive the next 5 years and earn a slot in the FAA museum. Shame that ZA718 will still be working hard and, who knows, may have a 5th DFC by then.....she should be in the museum now.

How long before the Merlin transfer thread re-ignites???

Got to love the reporting in the Sun`s article..."had a 2ft hole blasted in the rotor blade"..... does the Sun actualy have any kind of "Aviation thinking" person to hand?

Coley.

I'm pretty certain that this frame was one of a batch ordered by Egypt when were friends with them. The situation then changed and HMG was no longer prepared to sell them military kit, so HMG effectively bailed out Westlands by buying the batch.

There's something you don't read every day.

For once it may have been a fair response, as Westlands could no longer sell the cabs through no fault of their own as Maggie had withdrawn the export licences.

Four SK4s were built to “stage 2” and delivered one per month in Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr 1977. XZ870, 871, 872 and 873. This was probably under a Development contract as the production contract for the first batch of 10 was let in 1978.

These four cabs were then completed and redesignated ZA290, 291, 292 and 293; delivered in Sept 79, Nov 79, Dec 79 and Jan 80 respectively. The first SK4 flight was on 26.9.79 (ZA290).

Four more were delivered between Apr 80 and July 80. The aircraft in question, ZA298, was the 9th SK4, first flew on 21.8.81 and was delivered to MoD on 1.10.81. As the pilot offers a slightly later date this was probably a “paper” hand over.

However, Westland’s records show ZA298 to be “ex demo G-BJNM” implying she was hawked around the bazaars for a while. Nevertheless, she looks to be a long way from being the oldest, albeit part of the original production run.