The Westland Wasp

This is the story of the first helicopter in the world designed from the outset to be deployed at sea, in Destroyers and Frigates.

It is primarily based on the words of those who operated it.

Designed from the outset to cope with the restricted space of a warship both for stowage and flight operations it proved an immediate success.

Its original role was to act as a weapon carrier to launch torpedoes and depth charges on submarine contacts out of range of the parent ship's weapons range.

Soon, it also took on a second primary role of air to surface attack using wire guided missiles.

The flexibility of the machine was such that it was able to conduct a plethora of secondary roles from visual search to collecting the all-important ship's mail.

Wherever the Royal Navy was deployed on operations a Wasp was there.