Westland 30

An interesting thread on the WG.30 can be found here.

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/65254-westland-30-threads-merged.html

View of the cockpit layout for you…

I had a trip with a press group flown by Roy Moxam in the W.G. 30 at the 1981 Paris Air Show. I can certainly attest to the vibration!

Steady on there Bager………The W30 was a failure and there was a tail rotor failure on one machine as well as a couple of pilot failures,but nothing major and certainly no tail boom failure. The real problem was that the Lynx dynamic system and Gem engines were not tuned for civil transport operations and the aircraft suffered from a lack of range/ endurance and power.There was also a vibration issue,although not unique then or now to some civil helicopters.
The ultimate version,the Series 300 , with GE CT7 engines and a five blade main rotor overcame the worst problems but too late for Westland which ran out of money. Pity because the cabin was indeed well sized.
Incidentally if you look at the picture of the Airspur machine at Norwich it has a fake tail boom.The real one was scrapped before the aircraft was shipped back from the US for spares recovery.
If anyone knows what happened to the ones previously stored near Redhill and at Biggin Hill ,that were last seen on the M4 heading west I would be interested to know. The rumour at the time was that they were going to be used as simulators for offshore training in Malaysia after being cleaned up in a warehouse in Tewkesbury but were they .They just seem to have vanished!

The type had several tail boom/tail rotor failures during its short service, leading to a lack of further orders. I don’t remember if they developed a fix before the aircraft program was terminated or not.

Often see the one at Norwich and wonder why they weren’t a success.

They seem like a useful size. Were they all grounded at once?

I’ve always liked them, failure or not. There is just something about them.
Wonder if you could convert one to a road going vehicle??:eek:

One of these would make a great Club House / Coffee / Planning room at Our Airfield.

Here is the one at Norwich taken in 2011.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]227534[/ATTACH]

Any cockpit projects around?

It’s truly extraordinary how many of these failures have survived!

Regards

The Heli Museum actually has seven left ,having sold two for rig emergency training (Scotland and Norfolk),and two more for simulator conversion…..last seen with three from Redhill heading for Tewkesbury and then disappeared)…all ex US registered…..one ex BAH W30 went to Italy for crash tests .
Those remaining include one ex BAH aircraft on hire for engineer training at Bristol College, two Series 160 held for spares (one of which is undergoing long term fatigue testing in the children’s play area) ,the Series 100,200&300 prototypes and a Series 100 airframe modified as a ground rig.

At THM

Here’s another WG-30 at Beccles, this was one of the stored ones if i remember correctly

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Yes i remember seeing those stored WG-30’s in the hanger. Here is one at Beccles when active. [ATTACH=CONFIG]227517[/ATTACH]

When I lived in the UK, I paid a visit to the Beccles heliport, there were several in store there. Those might very well be the one at the IHM.

There are a couple at Biggin Hill I believe (ex-India) and one at Norwich Airport – not at the museum.
THM hold a few including the -100 as a play thing, -200 gate guard, -300 exhibit and the EMU (Engineering Mock Up). Think they have at least two out the back. (Been a while since I was last there)