3D model
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A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-BGHF, c/n 001, the Westland 30 prototype, first flown at Yeovil on 10 April 1979 and shown at the Paris Air Show that June, flown on development work until 1983 (when its retractable undercarriage gave way to fixed wheels and its Gem 41 engines to Gem 60s), demonstrated in India in 1983, last flown on 26 September 1985 and delivered by road to The Helicopter Museum at Weston-super-Mare in February 1989: Westland’s civil transport helicopter, built around the Lynx’s rotor head, transmission and Rolls-Royce Gem turboshafts with a new, much deeper box-section cabin for up to 22 people, a four-blade tail rotor on the port side of the pylon, tailplanes with end-plate fins and a fixed tricycle undercarriage, shown standing on its wheels as displayed, without its main rotor blades and with the starboard cabin door slid open: dark green overall, white ‘G-BGHF’ and a small Union flag on both sides of the tail boom, small white ‘Westland 30’ titles behind the crew doors, orange corner marks round the port emergency exit, faded red blanks over the engine intakes and exhausts, and red and white tail-rotor blades (shape from the Pilot Press three-view published in Air International in August 1983, cross-checked against a side-view silhouette, with the paint, markings and display state following photographs of G-BGHF at Weston-super-Mare). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (941 KB)
Data plate
Specification
- First flight10 April 1979
- Built40
- Top speed150 mph
- Engine2 × Rolls-Royce Gem 41-1 turboshafts, 1,135 shp each (Gem 60s of 1,260 shp on the later Series 100-60)
- Crew2 pilots, with up to 17 passengers in airline seating and 22 in high-density layouts
- Main rotor13.31 m
- Length, rotors turning15.9 m
- Height4.72 m
- In serviceAbout 40 built at Yeovil, 1979–1988; in airline and oil-support service from 1982 until the last Indian fleet was grounded in 1991
- RoleCivil transport helicopter
- MakerWestland Helicopters, Yeovil, Britain
- UK collections1
First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (+ Rotodyne parts); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Westland 30 Series 100 (1979) modelled here.
History
The Westland 30-100
In the mid-1970s Westland looked for a way to sell the Lynx to the civil market. Rather than stretch the Lynx itself, it kept the Lynx’s rotor head, main gearbox, tail transmission and Rolls-Royce Gem turboshafts and put them on top of a new, much bigger fuselage: a deep, square-sided box with a flat floor and a large sliding door on each side, high enough to stand in and roomy enough for up to 22 people. Begun as a private venture under the name WG.30, it was meant to carry passengers between cities and to oil rigs at a lower cost per seat than anything else in its class. The prototype, G-BGHF, first flew at Yeovil on 10 April 1979 and was shown at the Paris Air Show that June.
The Civil Aviation Authority certified the Westland 30 in December 1981, and British Airways Helicopters took the first delivery on 6 January 1982, flying it to the gas rigs of the southern North Sea and later on the Penzance to Isles of Scilly service. In the United States Airspur began a Los Angeles commuter service with four in May 1983, and Omniflight flew them for Pan Am between Kennedy Airport and Manhattan until February 1988. Westland followed the first Series 100 with the Series 100-60, with more powerful Gem 60 engines, and flew a Series 200 with General Electric CT7 turboshafts in 1983, but few customers came forward, and its poor sales added to the financial troubles behind the Westland affair of 1985–86.
The biggest order came from India. In 1986 the British government agreed to fund 21 Westland 30s with £65 million of aid, for the state helicopter company Pawan Hans to fly in support of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, and they were delivered between 1986 and 1988. The helicopters were ill-suited to India’s heat, and they suffered engine troubles and heavy maintenance demands. After two fatal accidents Pawan Hans grounded and stored the fleet in 1991. Production had already ended in 1988, at about 40 aircraft.
This airframe
Westland 30 Series 100 G-BGHF
G-BGHF (c/n 001), the first Westland 30, was built at Yeovil and first flew there on 10 April 1979, then flew to the Paris Air Show in June. From July 1979 to June 1983 it was Westland’s development aircraft: its retractable undercarriage was replaced by the fixed wheels of the production aircraft, its Lynx tail rotor by a quieter one turning the other way, and its 1,120 shp Gem 41 engines by 1,260 shp Gem 60s. It wore blue and white at first, a brown military scheme in 1980 and a brown, orange and white sunburst from May 1981. In September 1983 it was flown out to New Delhi in a freighter to be demonstrated to the Indian Air Force and the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, and back in Britain it flew engine certification trials. It was damaged in a single-engine heavy landing at RAE Bedford on 21 June 1984, repaired, and made its last flight on 26 September 1985, after 1,988 flying hours. Westland agreed in August 1988 to release it to The Helicopter Museum, and it arrived at Weston-super-Mare by road on 10 February 1989. The model shows it as displayed there, standing on its wheels without its main rotor blades and with the starboard cabin door slid open: dark green overall, white ‘G-BGHF’ and a small Union flag on both sides of the tail boom, small white ‘Westland 30’ titles behind the crew doors, orange corner marks round the port emergency exit, faded red blanks over the engine intakes and exhausts, and red and white tail-rotor blades. The shape follows the Pilot Press three-view published in Air International in August 1983, cross-checked against a side-view silhouette, and the paint, markings and display state follow photographs of G-BGHF at Weston-super-Mare.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the Westland 30-100 in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.