As you may have seen from the pictures and videos posted in our Facebook gallery, Lyme Bay RIB Charter was chartered to assist AgustaWestland in September ’13 as they demonstrated their Merlin AW101 aircraft to the Royal Norwegian Air Force as a potential aircraft for their All Weather Search & Rescue requirement.
Our part in this demonstration was 2 fold:
Firstly to offer a moving vessel to display the ability of the Hover Trim Controller function of the aircraft – precision positioning of the aircraft over a vessel/casualty almost directly beneath and therefore out of visual contact from the pilot.
LBRC was involved in 2 days of test runs along the coastline here in West Bay sitting in 60-70kt down drafts being covered in fine spray as the 14tonne aircraft hovered 40ft overhead!
Our 2nd Role was to act as a safety vessel whilst the Norwegian SAR divers/swimmers conducted a series of winching, swimming, recovery and life raft tests.
For this LBRC also had to provide a rescue diver on standby…
Fantasic news from Agusta Westland is that they won the contract to supply 16 AW101’s with a possible 6 more with full support, training and serving…
A contract worth £1 billion!
here was our message from AW
‘Hi Milo – it’s Mark from Westlands. Just to let you know that we have won the contract to build 16 AW101s for Norway, worth £1billion!!
Thanks for your help with the demos in the summer, it all helped to win a valuable customer!’
Have a look at the pictures and video from the demos here
Read the official press release here
Congratulations to Agusta Westlands from us here at LBRC…