Oldest Operational Helicopter?
 

On November 25th this year,The first 2 of the Irish Air Corps Allouette 3 aircraft,Ser no. A195 and 196 will have clocked up a total of 40 years active service. Are these the oldest Active Helis in the British Isles,if not the world?
Since their arrival they have been involved in SAR,training,VIP transport and Liason.
As a guide..after their arrival the Irish Air Corps took delivery of a DH Vampire(Formerly XE977)

Correct me if I'm wrong but since 1922 Ireland has not been part of the British Isles.

But politics and terrorism aside the best p1ss-up I ever had was at Baldonnel 1993 c/o the IAC Xmas bash. Well done lads and are yers still doing the close formation with Pumas north of Beleek...? Alledgedly.

British Isles is ok for me:)

Potentially, some of the soon to retire Wessex may be 40 years old (Feb63) but although very nostalgic, should have been retired years ago. If anyone within UK defence had any forsight, the Puma (65 design entered service in 71) would have been replaced by now.

The only real competition for the IAC Allouettes for longevity will come from other Allouette users. Switzerland or France come to mind.

Either way, good effort: Hope retirement comes with a safe flying record.

I think some of the Aussie Iroquois would give them a run for their money - still wokking on with the Army after many years with the RAAF.
I'll have to check up on the ages of the oldest ones, but they must be around 40, unless anyone knows off the top of their head?

If age is flying hours I suspect there are no military aircraft that come close to the civil fleet. S61 fleet leader (in Canada ex North Sea) must be over 45,000 hours and the high time AS332s close to 30,000!

Dunhovrin,

It might not be part of the UK, but until someone with a bigger fleet than ours tows it out to the middle of the ocean it'll remain part of the British Isles.

Surprised no-one from the RNZAF has chipped in yet with details of their fleet of B47s.

May not take the cake, but the US Marines and Navy have lots of CH46's that date back to the Vietnam war. Many still carry the patches placed to cover small arms fire they recieved.

Just to recap...
Active Operational Heli. Startups at least every other day..apart from downtime naturally. Not in mothballed reserve.
November 1963.
Geographically Ireland,north and south is part of the islands known as the British Isles. Cant do anything about that unless we start to call Great Britain and Ireland the "Irish Isles"..Hmm..
Note to Spot 4 French Gendarme are replacing their A3s currently with Ec145s.
Historic Flights dont count. Neither do Hours flown..Heli wear and tear is based on Startups,not Flying Hours.

Westland Scout AH1 military registration # XP891, entered military service in 1962 and is presently registered as ZK-HZS in Christchurch, NewZealand. I flew this aircraft at middle wallop on 25 November 1987.

The Swiss used Allouette II for 41 years operational service, and although now retired (99) probably have the record for another year or so.

Thud, it's true; I'm not sure of the exact details but we do still operate a number of Bell 47G Sioux which were first operational sometime in the fifties, if memory serve me correct.

They were Army choppers but were returned (or transfered) to the RNZAF when the NZ AAC was done away with. I think that was in 1973.

Today they're used for training. I guess if you have the nerve to go up in one you can handle anything! A mate of mine pranged one a while back; I'll email her for details and get back to you.

Edited to update figures...

Tired old brain is a decade out - the first delivery was Dec. 17, 1965, but it's still quite venerable!

the old sioux's are known within the rnzaf as the 'antique flight"
i think they started with 12 but over the years various incidents (including from what i have heard, an attempt to fly the chopper into the hanger and then shutdown, which resulted in the hanger been destroyed, it occured at waiouru army camp i think,) they are now down to around 5

One of the Brintel's S61N's on Contract "down South" when I was last there had a civvy reg. in the G-AT** series....that makes it mid'60's vintage, at a guess.

How about the 'oldest operational non operational' helo. Give it some time and the Apache fleet at Strawberry will take some beating, (unless the ATC school deploy with them)

The oldest aircraft in the US Navy inventory are some of the utility Sea Kings which (I think) were from the first batch. OK, they've been rebuilt a couple of times but the frames are well over 40 years old and still going.

Hmm,there is lots of "I think.." and "as far as I know" and "I believe". Anything substantial ,like 202 squadron using a whirlwind when the seaking is on downtime.."
Again:Operational,Constant use.
I may be picky here but same users too.
Other than that the Irish will have the record...and we cannot have that.
Like the Apache one tho...the amount of them that are falling out of the sky stateside during "training"

DETAILS!!:D

arsse,

The HAF Skeeter is seriously unserviceable and has been for 4 years.

From a purely technical p.o.v., I hope it stays that way.

Taff

Canada's front line :eek: Sea Slugs are 40 yrs old this year.