During the time of “Rhodesia” No. 8 Squadron was indeed the sole user of the eleven Augusta-Bell 205A’s known locally as the Cheetah. No.7 Squadron of the “Zimbabwe” AF obtained the three sole surviving Augusta-Bell 205’s during 1983 when 8 Squadron was deactivated. They also operate the Augusta-Bell 412.
The first AB-205A lost was c/n 4049 during it’s test flight near Melsetter, 9th February 1979, after the tail rotor drive shaft failed. The second was c/n 4051 which was shot down in Mozambique on the 3rd September 1979. At least one was written off by the Zimbabwe AF on 14th March 1982. Serials 4035, 4039, 4042 and 4052 were sold to the South African company, HeliBase.
A bit more that I’ve managed to obtain on the original purchase. Rhodesia had hoped to obtain newly built Agusta-Bell’s from Italy as they had successfully aquired aircraft from Italy in the past. This was unsuccessful but they were put in contact with a US company which delt with surplus aircraft. They were marketing 40 ex-Israeli machines which were not airworthy but they agreed to have a number of them made airworthy. Due to the political situation Rhodesia could not send anyone to inspect these machines and they had to rely on an American engineer for this. When these aircraft arrived in Rhodesia they were found to be in a poor state with many more hours on the airframe than they were led to believe. This led to the rumour that it was a three way deal with Agusta supplying Israel with new built machines and Rhodesia getting the old ones from Israel.
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