Westland Wessex HAS.3 ‘XM833’
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Description
c/n WA.14. Built 1960. On display at the North East Land, Sea & Air Museums (NELSAM), Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, UK. 11th September 2017 The following history for XM833 is from the very informative NELSAM website:- “The Wessex HAS.3 was a more powerful development of the Wessex HAS.1. The majority of Wessex HAS.3's were produced by converting 42 HAS.1 airframes, though an additional 3 were built new as pre-production aircraft. It was powered by a 1,600shp Napier Gazelle 18 Mk.165 turboshaft engine and equipped with the Ekco EK10 lightweight search radar, the Marconi Doppler navigation system and a duplex Newmark/Westland Mk.30 Automatic Flight Control System. This allowed it to perform adequately in the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) role with automatic control of take-off, hover and transition both by day and night without having to depend on the ships radar. During it's service life from Aug 1967, the HAS.3 equipped five operational squadrons (706, 814, 819, 820 & 826Sqn's) and two training units (700 & 737Sqn). In it's ASW role, it embarked in the carriers HMS Eagle, Victorious and Hermes. Some helicopters were deployed onto County Class frigates parented by 737Sqn e.g. HMS Hampshire, Glamorgan and Antrim. After withdrawal from font-line service in 1971, HAS.3's provided the platform for the training of observers and crewmen. 737Sqn at Portland was the last unit to operate the type, disbanding in February 1983. XM833 (c/n WA.014) was one out of a first production batch of forty Wessex HAS.1 helicopters built for the Royal Navy by Westland Aircraft Ltd at Yeovil against Contract 6/Aircraft/15487. It initially joined 700(H) Sqn (Intensive Flying Training Unit) at Culdrose before being converted to a HAS.3 variant by October 1967. XM833 went on to serve with 819, 814, 820 and 737Sqn's before being placed in storage at Wroughton. It was acquired by the Second World War Aircraft Preservation Society (SWWAPS) who displayed the helicopter at its Lasham location. NEAM bought it in Spring 2010 when the SWWAPS collection was dissolved following the sad death of its founder Bob Coles.” -
Owner
Hawkeye UK -
Source
Flickr (Flickr) -
License
What does this mean? Attribution-ShareAlike License
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Further information
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/65001151@N03/27895700259/
Resource type: Image
Added by: Simon Cotterill
Last modified: 6 years, 4 months ago
Viewed: 1101 times
Picture Taken: 2017-09-11T15:24:49 -
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