(Image: Phil Kemp; Westland Wessex XT672 preserved at MOD Stafford)
This old Westland Wessex helicopter, displayed outside the Tactical Supply Wing at MOD Stafford, a former non-flying RAF base also known as Beacon Barracks, remains nicely intact despite its fading camouflage paintwork.
The decommissioned utility helicopter, which is known as Aries and wears the serial number XT672, has retained its original RAF squadron code ‘WE’ in retirement and, though worn, appears to be well maintained. The workhorse rotorcraft first flew in November 1966 and was passed into Royal Air Force service the following month.
Withdrawn from flying duties in 1997, Wessex XT672’s post-retirment movements have been varied. She spent some years in storage at RAF Shawbury before departing for Air & Ground Aviation at Hixon in 1999. By 2003 she had returned to Shawbury for display but was replaced by another decommissioned Wessex six years later. In 2010 the helicopter moved to MOD Stafford, where she remains today.
(Image: Phil Kemp; the decommissioned helicopter framed by old railway sleepers)
Since that time, Wessex XT672 has been displayed on a bed of gravel and appears to have acquired a series of old railway sleepers around her robust undercarriage. Though the helicopter was reassembled and no doubt spruced up in 2010, but several years on XT672 looks ready for a fresh coat of paint.
The Wessex, a turbo-powered development of the American Sikorsky H-34 built under license by Westland Helicopters in the UK, was introduced in 1961 and remained in service with the Royal Navy and later the RAF for more than 40 years.
Around 55 Wessex airframes were used during the Falklands War in a variety of roles from transportation to the insertion and extrication of British special forces units. Nine were lost during the conflict, including six Wessex HU.5s from 848 Naval Air Squadron, which went down with the ill-fated container ship Atlantic Conveyor, which was sunk by two Argentine air-launched Exocet missiles.
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