Westland Widgeon (helicopter)

The Westland Widgeon was a helicopter developed by Westland Aircraft as a private venture improvement on the Westland WS-51 Dragonfly, which was itself a licensed Sikorsky design. Westland increased the cabin capacity and replaced the Dragonfly's rotor head, blades and gearbox with the units used in the Westland Whirlwind. Three Dragonfly Series 1A helicopters were converted to the WS-51 Series 2 Widgeon standard, and the first of them flew on 23 August 1955. One conversion, registered G-ANLW, was the first helicopter to land at the London Heliport, on 8 April 1959. In all, twelve new aircraft and three conversions were built. Operators included the Brazilian Navy, the Royal Ceylon Air Force, the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, the Royal Jordanian Air Force and Bristow Helicopters. A plan to bring up to 24 Fleet Air Arm Dragonflies to Widgeon standard as the Dragonfly HC.7 was abandoned in 1957 and contributed to the decision to stop progress.