Goodbye to the Lynx
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So not really "Goodbye", but just replaced by its more capable younger brother?
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There are slightly older helicopters still in UK military service (Puma) but it is quite remarkable that this is the equivalent of a WW1 aircraft also serving in WW2 and almost the same amount of time again afterwards.
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I think it proved its capabilities many times over. Age is just a number, and with Lynx they seemed to have got it right despite its 'vintage'. There' now't wrong with being old, you know! :)
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I remember loading the WG13 into a Hercules at Boscombe Down to take it to the USA for its hot weather trials.
By 'eck, time flies when you're enjoying yourself. |
"Dear Editor,
I am shocked that the Supermarine Spitfire Mark 1 is being withdrawn from active service just as we are potentially facing the greatest test of air combat in Britain's history. Sincerely yours, Idiot of Tonbridge Wells" |
Originally Posted by Brian W May
(Post 9674802)
I remember loading the WG13 into a Hercules at Boscombe Down to take it to the USA for its hot weather trials.
By 'eck, time flies when you're enjoying yourself. What year was that? I recall in an RAF Airpower book in the 1980s - near the end there was a photo of a RN Lynx in the old high viz blue markings and roundels in the California desert - think was it 19/82 or 83 doing hot and high trials? cheers |
Originally Posted by MPN11
(Post 9674797)
I think it proved its capabilities many times over. Age is just a number, and with Lynx they seemed to have got it right despite its 'vintage'. There' now't wrong with being old, you know! :)
Similarly remarkable is the longevity of other UK military helicopters, such as the Wessex and the Puma. The old, dyed-in-the-wool, RAF Wessex crews said in 1971 that the newly introduced Puma, apparently being made almost totally from plastic, "Could never last long in RAF service". But they're still going, albeit in HC2 form, almost 46 years on. The Chinook will undoubtedly go on for aeons. |
<cough> Gazelle - only aircraft to serve all four arms of UK military (army, RAF, RN, Royal Marines) and the experimental establishments, still hanging on with the Army and Qinetiq.
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Wow! Some seriously rose tinted specs from an army perspective! All I can remember is an underpowered, over-engineered aircraft with a cabin too small (army perspective remember!) with little or no armament. Glad it's gone.
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ShyTorque ... no disrespect to the Lynx intended, I assure you. ;)
But ... Wildcat is still, essentially, a much evolved Lynx. As was the Spit F22 from the Mk 1 :) Danny42C ... help me here!! So ... what's the oldest RAF/RN/AAC type still serving, in whatever form/evolution? I'm not talking about Boscombe, but actual Service use? |
I think it's already been mentioned....
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In "Cold War" Germany the army used to go to great lengths to "cam up" their deployed, field parked Lynxes. |
Along with the Lynx will disappear its splendid anti-ship missile system Sea Skua. As a young graduate in the mid-seventies, the homing head (or seeker) development was one of the first programmes I worked on. Almost forty years later, just before retirement, one of the last things I did was to plan the support for its final in-service extension programme.
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Originally Posted by MPN11
(Post 9674998)
So ... what's the oldest RAF/RN/AAC type still serving, in whatever form/evolution? I'm not talking about Boscombe, but actual Service use?
Oldest airframe in continual UK service would be the Sea King ASAC |
S-61 1959, UK Sea King 1969
Hercules 1954 RAF H-1966; J - 1996 |
Peeps might be interested in my book on the subject which is available for preorder from the Navy Wings web site. All profits are going to them and any orders will be signed.
https://www.navywings.org.uk/ |
The Wildcat airframe is very different from a Lynx although looks familiar. Some of the transmission is the same as a Mk 9A. (for example main rotor head and blades) but the inside is totaly different. The MoD didn't pay for everything to be upgraded as it saved money by using legacy parts from the Lynx. The Korean AW 159 is different again (digital AFCS)
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Discounting the Lancaster, the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the BBMF as display only a/c, might I nominated their Chipmunk's that are used for training pilots on tail dragger's, as the oldest air-frames in 'operational use' in today's RAF?
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Have all the Army Lynx been retired now?
I know the Mk7s have, and many of the Mk9As have been used as Wildcat donors, but will there be any Mk9/9A still in service after the FAA retirement in March? PS: For LJC - having clicked on the link I see who you are. Have been very much enjoying your novels, sir. :ok: |
The AH9A is still in service, I believe planned OSD is 2019
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Thanks - good to know it's not quite goodbye to the Lynx just yet.
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I worked on the weapons carrying equipment for Lynx and other choppers, The public see naval choppers pulling people out of the drink, and think that is their main job. A Lynx and its hopeful better replacement is virtually a destroyer or frigates main armament. a 4.5" gun, and deck launched torpedoes have limited range, bur a Lynx could carry four torpedoes over the horizon.
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I flew Chipmunks in 1951, are the same ones still flying. Came top of that course, but failed when given more difficult things to fly, so ended up Navigator.
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This makes me feel old as I remember the Lynx IFTU taking place at Middle Wallop at the time I retired from the AAC! :-(
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Probably the same reason the RAF made helicopter crews wear face cam cream in the cockpit when deployed in the field. |
there's also the RN Swordfish...............
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Report in The Register
New Navy Wildcat helicopters can't transmit vital data. Crews have to land and move tactical info around via USB sticks The vital data link capability was deleted in 2008 as part of a cost-cutting exercise by the Ministry of Defence. At the same time, the total number of helicopters on order was cut from 70 to 62, along with a host of other vital capabilities, in the infamous phrase "fitted for but not with". The export version of the Wildcat is fitted with a Link 16-compatible TDL. |
Man,2 flags ,or semaphore lamp...any in stores...?
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Gazelle is in its 50th year which can't be far off?
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Good heavens, why ever would we want to share information?:ugh:
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Ref the comments about the Wildcat just being 'another Lynx', this always shows those who have done the Wildcat course from those who haven't. :ugh:
Incidentally, my book on the Lynx (officially licenced and approved by the Royal Navy and with full co-operation of 815 NAS and LWMF) which looks at the aircraft not just from the aircrew side but also from the mainter's viewpoint, is still available via: https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Wes...ds=lynx+manual No personal gain from sales, I might add! |
Originally Posted by Gnd
(Post 9679917)
Gazelle is in its 50th year which can't be far off?
Gazelle 50th Anniversary Commemorative Fly-in | Threshold cheers |
Originally Posted by ian16th
(Post 9675906)
Discounting the Lancaster, the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the BBMF as display only a/c, might I nominated their Chipmunk's that are used for training pilots on tail dragger's, as the oldest air-frames in 'operational use' in today's RAF?
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Re the Gazelle
The prototype Sa340-001 flew with a tail rotor from the Alouette 2 and a rigid rotorhead, the fenestron didn't fly until 1968 on -002. 002 is in a museum at Toulouse. Search for Aerospatiale Sa340 The production prototype didn't fly until august 1971. An early pre production aircraft is an the museum at Newark. It didn't start in Squadron service with the UK mil until 1974. Wildcat is referred to as a Lynx MK10 by a number of people!!:ok: |
Just this minute a flight of four Lynx flew past Hastings heading west along the coast. Unusual to see so many at one time.
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They'd be Wildcats!
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825 NAS Wildcats heading home from a continental NAVEX.
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I'm with Rotate-too-late on this one. Only have time on the Army Lynx, mostly Mk1 and briefly Mk7; never knew an aircraft so poorly designed for its main task.
Lookout while low flying was like sitting inside a house and peering through the letterbox. Unable to hover for more than 5 minutes per sortie with OAT >30 deg C (hyd limitation), in fact unable to hover with 2 up, half fuel and 8 empty TOW tubes on a summer's day. Most serious occurrence I've ever had in any a/c was in a Lynx transitting at 4000' through Brize airspace. Vibration started, PAN declared and by the time I'd put her down at Brize the whole airframe was shaking violently. Main gearbox on its way out. Kudos to the AAC pilots who made a relative success out of such a heap of poo, and of course to the RN small-ship flights who did so well with it. |
Was forced onto the Lynx after APC after a tour in the chicken-leg and hated the 1, tolerated the 7 after transitioning through various options of engines and MRGB, then helped introduce the 9. Never truly felt any confidence in completing every trip, although I seem to have survived, albeit with long-term knee and back issues. Echo the comment on visibility.
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