vintage helicopter in "Eye of the Needle"

Good film, always worried me using a Widgeon though, should have been a Sikorsky R4 perhaps.

At the time…or since…no R-4s were flying.
I dont think one’s been flown since the late 50s.
A helicopter expert in Oregon restored a couple of R-4s and H-5s for museums, but I don’t think he ever flew an R-4 post restoration.

She was with Helicopter hire at Southend before moving to the Southend museum on loan and then returning to her owners on the airport

thanks guys

Thought it looked like a westland product. Never would have guessed she had a fals front on it..!

Westland Widgeon G-ANLW with a mock nose piece fitted. It’s with the Norfolk and Suffolk museum at Flixton.

…on Loan from Sloane Helicopters, Sywell….

TT

Flown by John Crewdson I believe, and from his company, Helicopter Hire at Southend.

Good film, always worried me using a Widgeon though, should have been a Sikorsky R4 perhaps. Never mind Kate Nelligan helped me forget the innacuracies.
The airfield scenes were filmed at Blackbushe with a new section of fence being erected for the occasion, real Dack but rest were fake, but thats part of the story.

At the risk of being the site’s helicopter anorak…
the Widgeon is a license built Sikorsky S-51/H-5 (with an updated front fuselage) which first flew in 1943…so the timing wasn’t too far off.

Westland Widgeon G-ANLW with a mock nose piece fitted. It’s with the Norfolk and Suffolk museum at Flixton.