Ark Royal Helicopters 1960's

Here’s a couple of photos of the Wessex in the drawing Lee supplied:

Wessex XM869 from Ark Royal arrives at RAF Changi, Singapore for the Battle-of-Britain display on 15th September 1963. The pilot is is Dick Boas and his co-pilot, not shown in the photo, is Dick Browne. The person looking directly at the camera is the Observer, Brian Routledge and the aircrewman with his back to the camera is believed to be Norman Anning.

David Taylor.

Ship’s Flight aircraft, one of the roles being to act as Plane Guard SAR.

Another quick question – which would normally be the rescue helicopter for landing aircraft. Would it be the ship flight Whirlwind or one of the squadron Wessex’s?

Thanks very much guys for taking the time to help me out. Exactly what I needed – I knew I could rely on you.
Steve

Here are the colours of Ark Royal’s Whirlwind and Wessex operating when 803 Squadron’s Scimitars were on board.

All your queries should be suitably answered when I finally finish our forthcoming Air-Britain Fleet Air Arm Helicopters serials book. It’s taken longer than hoped, but fingers crossed Jun 2010 should see it on sale.;)

I was reasonably confident about the XM685 dates as I extracted the data from official forms / cards for use in the Museum Guide Book back in the early 1980s – but not so the colour scheme. 😮

Sadly I’ve not been able to get the Museum Archive checked for Log Book entries or further pictures.

In the interests of accuracy, a few corrections to what has been posted so far:

XM684 and XM685 were with Ship’s Flt Ark Royal much earlier – from September 1964 in fact (as TwinOtter23 correctly states).

“Midnite Blue” was not used on RN Westland-built Whirlwinds (of any variant) – they were painted RAF Blue-Grey.

Whirlwind HAR.5s were never used by Ship’s Flt Ark Royal.

Lee

A message from the Yorkshire Helicopter Preservation group

From about mid 1965 to Oct 1966, when the Ark went for major refit, the two Ship’s Flight Whirlwinds (HAS7s) were XM684 coded ‘041/R’ and XM685 coded ‘042/R’ supposed scheme was overall Midnite Blue with white serials, codes and titles. Haven’t had time to
look for any photos yet but perhaps this info can give the enquirer a point in the right direction.

Complete list of RN carrier air groups:
http://www.btinternet.com/~a.c.walton/navy/rn-cv3.html

1960: 800 & 807 sqn. 6 & 8 Scimitar F1; 892 sqn. 8 Sea Vixen FAW1; 849 sqn. A flt. 4 Gannet AEW3; 820 & 824 sqn. 6 & 8 Whirlwind HAS7; Ships Flight 1 Dragonfly HR5

1962 – 1963: 800 sqn. 12 Scimitar F1; 890 sqn. 14 Sea Vixen FAW1; 849 sqn. C flt. 4 Gannet AEW3; 815 sqn. 8 Wessex HAS1 ;Ships Flight 1 Whirlwind HAR5

What you want is here:
1965 – 1966: 803 sqn. 12 Scimitar F1; 890 sqn. 14 Sea Vixen FAW1; 849 sqn. C flt. 4 Gannet AEW3, 1 Gannet COD4; 819 sqn. 8 Wessex HAS1; Ships Flight 1 Whirlwind HAR5

NAM’s Whirlwind HAS.7 XM685 was part of HMS Ark Royal’s SAR Flight between September 1964 and October 1966.

XM685 currently wears a Dark Blue and Day-Glo scheme, which I believe might be the correct scheme – but I would need to get this confirmed.

There’s a picture of XM685 in the header to this page of the museum website!