There is nothing like a cold and windy winters evening to make you yearn for the delights of the summer Airshow season and I have to say that last year was something of a classic year. One of the most pleasant aviation surprises I experienced last year was catching up with the only airworthy Westland Whirlwind HAR 10 in the world, at the RAF Waddington display – I had absolutely no idea that it was going to be there. As is usually the case, show day started in less than ideal conditions. Following my early start and two and a half hour journey, I arrived on the airfield to overcast, grey skies and quite heavy rain, which was in danger of getting inside my camera bag and was totally stressing me out! Indeed, as the first acts began to prepare for their display slots, there was no let up in the poor weather and I did not even attempt to remove my camera from its haven. It was only when the new RAF RC-135W ‘Rivet Joint’ began to taxi down the runway, that I thought it was about time to get busy and even though I managed to grab a few record shots, the camera went straight back in the bag afterwards. It was at this point that I had my hood right over my head, leaning on the fence, listening to the music of the falling rain, in a sort of melancholy stupor, wondering why I keep doing this to myself. Just then, I heard the sound of a deep, throaty engine, which sounded rather unusual. I looked to the far side of the airfield and through the rain, I could see a glorious Westland Whirlwind helicopter, in RAF Search and Rescue livery – where on earth had that come from? It was an absolutely fantastic sight (and sound) and thankfully, as you can see from the picture above, the weather improved dramatically and they brought this beautiful aircraft a little closer.
Westland Whirlwind HAR.10 XJ729 – G-BVGE
I don’t think that there can be any doubt that XJ729 is one of the most interesting aircraft of the UK historic aviation scene and I really hope that I can catch it at a couple of shows later this year. She is a very rare bird indeed and is currently the only airworthy Whirlwind HAR.10 in the world – I say currently, but this could well be the last ever opportunity to see one of these magnificent aircraft in the air. Wearing these distinctive RAF No.22 Squadron Search and Rescue colours, she certainly a little bit of rotary eye candy for the aviation enthusiast and if she can remain serviceable, I don’t think that the team behind her will have any trouble whatsoever in gaining a full diary of Airshow bookings for this coming summer.
Built originally to HAR.2 standard, XJ729 was first flown from the Westland’s Yeovil factory on 18th January 1956 and by March of the same year, she was on strength with No.22 Search and Rescue squadron at RAF St. Mawgan. Regularly patrolling the holiday beaches of Devon and Cornwall, it is no wonder that these highly visible helicopters become some of the most instantly recognisable and best loved aircraft in RAF service, irrespective of the fact that they also help to save countless lives throughout their service life. In 1961, she went back to Westland Helicopters for upgrade to HAR.10 standard, before returning to St. Mawgan in March 1962, to continue her work. During an extensive service life, she also spent time at RAF Leconfield, RAF Leuchars, RAF Coltishall and RAF Chivenor, before ending her career at the Search and Rescue Training Unit at RAF Valley, on Anglesey.
Following withdrawal from service, she was sent to RAF Finningley, where she served as an instructional airframe and began to deteriorate from this point. Left outside and open to the elements, she was in a sorry state and was subsequently sold for scrap – such a sad end for an aircraft that spent it’s life helping to save people from perilous situations. Thankfully, she was rescued from the scrapman and an extensive period of restoration began, culminating in her triumphant static appearance at the 1995 Royal International Air Tattoo, at Fairford. Her recent history is very much associated with Ireland – a business man from Mullingar bought the aircraft and operated it regularly at Airshows and public events, until it’s certificate of air worthiness expired in 2007. From this date, little was heard about the aircraft and for many, she appeared to drop off the historic aviation radar. It was only in late 2013 that news again began to circulate regarding Whirlwind XJ729, as a UK based businessman purchased the aircraft and brought it back to the England – following extensive work and probably much investment, XJ729 was granted a Certificate of Air Worthiness at the end of November 2013 – she was back! During 2014, people began to see tantalising glimpses of this magnificent helicopter and Waddington was one of the largest gatherings to benefit from a Whirlwind sighting. She was dragged to the crowd side of the airfield, where she was put on display for close inspection and as you may well imagine, attracted many interested admirers. Hopefully, 2015 will be a big year for this historic and extremely handsome classic British Helicopter and I certainly look forward to meeting up with her again.
The Whirlwind in die-cast metal
Within the Corgi Aviation Archive range, the 1/72nd scale helicopter collection is highly regarded amongst collectors and holds the distinction of being some of the most technically advanced models in the hobby. One of their latest tooling’s is the magnificent Westland Whirlwind and the first release in this series was actually the subject of this weeks feature – Whirlwind HAR Mk.10 XJ729. An absolutely stunning model, this is sure to be extremely sought after in the years to come, especially as she is likely to become an Airshow favourite from this year forwards. With just eight models still available when I updated the website and started this weeks Newsletter, four have already been snapped up by regular website visitors and the others will surely go very quickly, particularly as our remaining models have been heavily discounted.
Helicopter Offer of the Week
As we have almost sold out of our entire Corgi Helicopter stocks, we have decided to offer each and every model that we do still have available at a significant discount and rotary collectors need to head straight for this section of our website and grab themselves a die-cast aviation bargain. There is, however, a severe note of warning – we have very few models left! Some of them are down to single numbers and must be allocated on a ‘first to order’ basis. I will endeavour to remove the models from sale once they have gone, but as it is my birthday weekend coming up, I may be a little less attentive than usual on the website. In any case, please have a quick look in our Offer of the Week section and see if there is anything that takes your fancy.
The main model we have on offer this weekend is this fantastic Westland Puma HC.1 (AA27001). This is one of the most recent tooling’s in the impressive Corgi Helicopter range and is an absolute must for collectors with an interest in rotary aviation – it presents us with an RAF machine, in the colours of No.230 squadron at Benson and has a number of impressive operating features. A certificated, limited edition release, this beautiful model is being offered at LESS THAN HALF PRICE, but only on our remaining stocks. Once these models have gone, they will have gone for good and you will have missed the opportunity to obtain a brand new, fully certificated model Puma, at this unbelievably generous price – good luck to all our readers! Here is a closer look at what you will be getting.
Deal of the Day – A success from day one!
You will recall that last weeks Newsletter announced the arrival of the latest feature to appear on the Flying Tigers website – our Deal of the Day section. This exciting section is allowing us to showcase some models that are available in very small numbers, or are not even currently on the website at all, but with the intention of letting our loyal website visitors have the opportunity to obtain some extremely desirable models at great prices. It is important that you check this area of our website each day, as the model offered will be changed every day, from Monday to Thursday and models from all sections will be featured on there – if you are in to modern jets, or military vehicles, they will all appear in our Deal of the Day section, over the coming weeks. Let’s take a closer look at the first four models to have been featured:
The first model to be offered was this very rare and previously un-listed Corgi Gloster Meteor F(TT) Mk.8 – this sold out almost straight away. Next up was a 1/200th scale Douglas R5D Skymaster, in the distinctive colours of the US Navy Blue Angels – we now just have one model still available. Wednesday saw a mid-week e-mail accompany the listing of a magnificent Hobbymaster 1/72nd scale Douglas A-20G Havoc ‘Miss Pam’, which saw a spectacular response from our readers. We did have a few more of these models available, but most of them now have new homes, as collectors could not resist this spectacular bargain – we still have THREE models available at this same sale price.
The latest model to be offered is a 1/200th scale BAC 111 in the spectacular In Flight 200 range. IF111008 was first released back in 2009 and has been sold out at the vast majority of suppliers for some time. Presented in the colours of the Royal Australian Air Force, this model is produced to extremely high standards and although to is relatively small in stature, it has a very high metal content and features beautifully applied tampo printed markings. Only 312 of these models were ever produced and we only have FOUR models still available – what makes this even more appealing is the fact that we are offering our last models at just £29.99 each, which is half the original price of the model. If you have not experienced the In Flight 200 range before, you will be very pleasantly surprised at the quality of these models and may well become infected with the 1/200th scale bug . To the lucky four collectors, I think that you will be delighted with your purchase, but in any case, please check our Deal of the Day section regularly, to see if we have something to interest you.
Finally for this week, I am going to leave you with a unique picture from this years Waddington Airshow. It features the Westland Whirlwind XJ729 we looked at earlier, coming under closer inspection from one of the more usual Waddington residents – I am sure that the Sentry crew enjoyed the view.