The Helicopter Museum, Weston-super-Mare
More than 80 helicopters and autogyros, including Westland Whirlwinds, Wessexes, a Scout, a Wasp, Lynx and four Westland 30s.
The types
Westland aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westland Wapiti & WallaceWapiti, Wallace II | 1927 | c.690 | 2 |
| Westland Lysander | 1936 | 1,786 | 4 |
| Bell 47 / Sioux | 1945 | ~5,600 | 5 |
| Westland WyvernTF.1 | 1946 | 127 | 1 |
| Westland Dragonfly & Widgeon | 1948 | ~160 | 6 |
| Westland Whirlwind (helicopter)HAR/HCC | 1953 | ~400 | 14 |
| GAF Jindivik & the target drones | 1957 | ~500 | 13 |
| Westland WessexHAS, HC.2, HCC.4 | 1958 | ~380 | 16 |
| Westland Scout & Wasp | 1959 | ~280 | 10 |
| Westland Belvedere | 1961 | 26 | 3 |
| Aérospatiale Puma & Super Frelon | 1965 | ~940 | 6 |
| Aérospatiale Gazelle & Alouette | 1967 | ~3,000 | 10 |
| Westland Sea KingHAS/HAR.3/HC.4 | 1969 | 344 (UK) | 13 |
| Westland LynxAH.7, HAS.3, HMA.8 | 1971 | ~450 | 11 |
| Westland 30 & the might-have-beens+ Rotodyne parts | 1976 | 40 | 1 |
| EH Industries EH101 Merlin | 1987 | ~230 | 2 |
The firm
Westland in brief
Arthur Davenport and W.E.W. Petter led design, and Harald Penrose was chief test pilot. The Lysander army co-operation aircraft flew agents into occupied Europe. The Whirlwind was the RAF’s first cannon-armed fighter. In wartime Westland also built Spitfires. Afterwards the company turned to helicopters, building Sikorsky designs under licence: the Dragonfly, Whirlwind and turbine-powered Wessex. Petter left after that switch.
In 1960–61 the helicopter work of Bristol, Fairey and Saunders-Roe was merged with Westland to form Westland Helicopters. The Sea King and Lynx followed, and an Anglo-French deal added the Gazelle and Puma. In July 2000 Westland and Agusta merged as AgustaWestland. That became part of Leonardo in 2016.
Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton
A few miles from Westland’s Yeovil works. The Royal Navy has flown Westland helicopters for decades.
Where to go
Museums holding Westland aircraft
| Museum | Westland types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 13 | £15 | 108 | G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 10 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 8 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 7 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 7 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 7 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 6 | £8 | 35 | Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| Army Flying MuseumStockbridge, Hampshire | 5 | £18 | 43 | Middle Wallop's Army Flying Museum covers everything the Army has flown from observation balloons to Apaches, with superb dioramas and a… |
| East Midlands AeroparkDerby, Leicestershire | 5 | £5 | 35 | East Midlands Aeropark: a Vulcan, Nimrod R1 and Buccaneer parked on grassy mounds overlooking EMA's runway — half museum, half premier… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 5 | £7.50 | 46 | NELSAM in Sunderland mixes Vulcan XL319 (flew in when the airport still existed), a Pucará from the Falklands, trams, buses and a… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 5 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 4 | £10 | 29 | The sit-anywhere policy itself — one entry fee, no per-cockpit charges, a full BAC 1-11 flight-deck sim in a shed, and thousands… |
| Farnborough Air Sciences Trust MuseumFarnborough, Hampshire | 4 | Free | 16 | FAST at Farnborough guards the birthplace of British aviation science — Cody, the RAE, wind tunnels — with sit-in Harrier, Puma and Lynx… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 4 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 4 | £10 | 73 | The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 3 | £13.50 | 49 | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 2 | £9 | 33 | City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| Cornwall at War Museum, DavidstowCamelford, Cornwall | 2 | £7 | 8 | Cornwall’s big WW2 / military museum on the old RAF Davidstow Moor Coastal Command field — aircraft, military vehicles, humour intact,… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 2 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 2 | £8 | 21 | Vulcan XJ823 with pre-bookable crew-compartment visits; a Phantom, Lightning and Canberra (whose three-crew cockpit reviewers describe as… |
| Tangmere Military Aviation MuseumChichester, West Sussex | 2 | £15 | 23 | Hawker Hunter WB188 in one-off scarlet, in which Neville Duke took the world air speed record to 727.63 mph off this coast in 1953;… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 2 | £17 | 54 | Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| Aerospace BristolBristol, Gloucestershire | 1 | £20 | 14 | Concorde G-BOAF, the last Concorde ever built and the last ever to fly (26 November 2003, into Filton, forever). You can board her.… |
| Airworld Aviation MuseumCaernarfon, Gwynedd | 1 | £7 | 10 | Airworld at Caernarfon Airport (RAF Llandwrog, birthplace of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service): Hunter, Vampire and the world's only… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 1 | £10 | 14 | The 1913 fabric itself, plus the resident ghost stories (Montrose is Britain's most famously haunted airfield, a claim the volunteers… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 1 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 1 | £10 | 65 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| RAF Manston History MuseumRamsgate, Kent | 1 | £7 | 22 | RAF Manston's history museum spans 1916 RNAS days to Cold War Meteors, with strong 1940s room-sets — and it sits next door to the… |
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 1 | £19.50 | 55 | The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| Thorpe Camp Visitor CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 1 | £7 | 5 | Thorpe Camp preserves RAF Woodhall Spa's communal site — home of 617 Squadron post-Dams — as a period village of huts, with volunteers in… |
Questions
Frequently asked
Where was Westland based?
At Yeovil in Somerset, from 1915. It began as part of Petters and became Westland Aircraft Ltd in 1935.
Did Westland build Spitfires?
Yes. Westland’s factories built Spitfires during the Second World War, alongside its own Lysander and Whirlwind.
Does Westland still exist?
Not under its own name. It merged with Agusta in 2000 to form AgustaWestland, which became Leonardo’s helicopter division in 2016.