David Gibbings - A Quiet Country Town: A Celebration of 100 Years of Westland at Yeovil

A Dedication by:

The Rt Hon. the Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon GCMG KBE

As well as being a world class aero-engineering and technology firm, Westland is the industrial heart of the community in Yeovil and South Somerset. I was privileged to work for a Westland firm in Yeovil and to represent the community in Parliament.

For anyone interested in the South Somerset area or in Britains proud aero-industry, this comprehensive account is a must read,

Paddy Ashdown

It is always pleasant, when one has been involved in a book, to discover that your efforts have not passed unnoticed, and that the author has acknowledged the contribution. For this book, which is an anthology, the authors are prominently named, and can be assured of my thanks for their fine work.

A number of my colleagues at AgustaWestland helped me on the way but I shall not follow the risky path of naming a few, in the knowledge that I would unintentionally miss someone out.

I will break that rule just a little: the basis for the cover was the work of Doug Lloyd; few books, publications, presentations or layouts are produced within Westland without his generous help. Simon Pryor controls the use of AW photographs, and the high standard of photographs available is due to him. Both these stars have my thanks as fellow artists, enthusiasts and valued friends..

It has been my privilege to assist Richard Folkes during the lead-up to the centenary. I have always admired positive thinking and good humour, and here I have met my match.

I am indebted to my colleagues from the Westland family past, and their brilliant young successors and of course that Parcel of Rogues who make up Flight Operations, pilots and engineers who knowingly or unwittingly have contributed to this book.

I would wish that those who started it all in 1915 could be aware of what they, we and the people of Yeovil have achieved, and long may it continue.

So it is 100 years since the airfield was established and the manufacture of aircraft commenced at Yeovil. From that time onwards Yeovil ceased to be the quiet country town it had always been, and began to develop as an aviation centre.

As celebrating a significant anniversary would clearly call for a book, my own thoughts were that this should not be yet another catalogue of aircraft, but rather something that brought out the relationship between the aircraft company and the local community.

The formative years were devoted to fixed-wing aircraft; however, Westland has established itself as a helicopter company and now stands as a centre of rotorcraft activity within the UK.

The West Country has always been at the heart of the quest to fly. In 1848 Stringfellow flew his steam-driven model at Chard, and this event is generally accepted as the first flight by an aircraft operating under its own power. It is interesting to reflect upon the incredible rate of progress since that time. It took 50 years before the Wright Brothers were able to fly a mere 40 metres/120 feet.

However, thirty years later the DC-3 flew, capable of taking 30 passengers between cities, and little over thirty years after that Concorde was flying the Atlantic at supersonic speeds. By the mid-1980s, the Space Shuttle was taking man into space.

Although the development of the helicopter does not invoke the same excitement as the supersonic adventure, the creation of an aircraft that can take off and land on a given spot is a life saver in itself, and involves all the high technology available. It follows that the work going on within the factory compound and airfield at Yeovil today has advanced to a level comparable anywhere within the aerospace industry.

If one looks into the origins of any significant settlement at Yeovil, it becomes evident that it was beginning to expand with the arrival of the Romans and the traffic of goods along the Fosse Way, so there is cause for some amusement that maybe there has always been Italian interest in Yeovil from the very beginning.

It should be noted that for one third of the century we now celebrate we have been closely associated with the Italian company Agusta. It certainly should be noted that this is also reflected by the fact that Yeovil has chosen to twin with Cascina Costa.

A great deal has been written about Westland, and extracts from these sources have been selected for this book, and there are also several original items. Taken together they should tell a story, not only about the engineering, but about the people involved and the relationship with the town and local community.

When Westland decided to transform itself into a specialist helicopter company, the decision was influenced by the fact that here was a flying machine with only limited military potential, largely seen as lifesaver or means of transportation, a technology well suited for a Swords to Ploughshares philosophy.

The armed helicopter that has evolved from such good intentions is now a force to be reckoned with, but even so, for any major disaster in the world there is generally a call for helicopters to carry and place help where it is needed.

Although we have not experienced warfare on the scale of World War Two during the last seventy years, Britain has been to war on several occasions in Suez, Malaysia, Aden, the Falklands, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, and helicopters have played a crucial part in the action. Oil exploration on the scale that we now know it is totally reliant upon the unique capability of the helicopter.

Search and Rescue and Air Ambulance are now well established.

And to serve the UK, all but a few came up from Somerset!