Secret Projects & Cutting Edge Technology: Westland Aircraft & Rotorcraft (book review)

Book by Jeremy Graham and Ron Smith

Dr Ron Smith joined the British helicopter company Westland in 1975, working in Research Aerodynamics, and remotely piloted helicopters (before they were cool), and later became Head of Future Projects. He had a strong influence on the design of the NH90 helicopter, and was involved in the assessment of the Apache for Britain. He also explored a variety of exotic future technologies for Westland. One such exotic machine was a secret stealth attack helicopter (see cover).

REVEALED: Britain’s secret stealth helicopter & other exotic Westland projects

 Ron Smith has for some years now been a regular contributor to the Hush-Kit site. We’ve been very lucky to have him, as his extraordinary insights into helicopters from his time at Westland make for fascinating reading, as do his pithy powers of analysis and his almost supernatural skills at aircraft
identification (so good, in fact, he should probably be burnt as a witch). His sometimes surreal and almost always aeronautical adventures with his identical twin brother, ‘fixed-wing’ Jim, are recorded in an earlier book. In this new book, he has teamed up with Jeremy Graham who joined the Somerset
helicopter manufacturer the same year and also enjoyed a very illustrious career. With the authors’ immaculate pedigree, it is clear that this is very much an insider’s guide and one that can be trusted.

First impression of the large heavy book is the excitedly weird stealth helicopter (looking somewhat like a knight’s sabaton) depicted in the fine cover artwork by Piotr Forkasiewicz. What follows is a delightfully detailed waltz through Westland’s bestiary of often weird, and always intriguing, designs. Even the most hardcore fan of obscure cancelled aircraft will find their mind blown by some of the types that made it into this superb book displayed in a generous selection of blueprints, photos, artworks and diagrams. This is a far more aesthetic object, and dare I say, engaging book, than Westland 50, a 1965 book that until this new work was the only one in my personal library covering this subject. 

Did someone say jet Wyvern? I can’t hear you over my excitement in writing ‘jet Wyvern’. The book also features a favorite of mine, the Westminster, an excellent heavyweight helicopter design stymied by the wrong engine choice. In fact, bad luck with engines (and in some cases propellers) seems to be a running story in the Westland saga. This book was made with the love and care of men writing the history of an organisation they were a part of themselves, and this comes across. And what an organisation, its Whirlwind fighter of the 1930s was revolutionary and featured much of the latest thinking in fighter design. Westland survived the 50s-70s, witnessing many famous British manufacturers disappear forever.

As this book shows, Westland has never been short of cutting-edge ideas (stealth helicopters before the Comanche being one) or great engineers. Only the larger national situation tas held back many of these. Westland outlived Supermarine, Hawker, and Gloster, and existed under its own name until 2000. The Somerset company endured Thatcher’s covert(ish) attempts to sell it to Sikorsky, so it is somewhat sad from the perspective of British industry to see the recent move by the MoD away from Agusta-Westland (later Leonardo) sourced WAH-64s to US AH-64E Apaches.

This is a beautiful comprehensive insider’s guide to a renegade aircraft manufacturer, a book that belongs on every aviation fan’s shelf. You can grab a copy here, once you’ve supported The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes Vol 3 here.

(My only tiny contribution to
this book is suggesting the upper title on the cover would be easier to see in
yellow than white)