Harry S Helicopter

One day Harry's bright red cardboard helicopter takes off with him in a gust of wind and gives him a thrilling ride.

In April 1982 Harry Benson was a 21-year-old Royal Navy commando helicopter pilot, fresh out of training and one of the youngest helicopter pilots to serve in the Falklands War. These pilots, nicknamed 'junglies', flew most of the land-based missions in the Falklands in their Sea King and Wessex helicopters. Much of what happened in the war - the politics, task force ships, Sea Harriers, landings, Paras and Marines - is well-known and documented. But almost nothing is known of the young commando helicopter pilots and aircrewmen who made it all happen on land and sea. This is their 'Boys Own' story, told for the very first time. Harry Benson has interviewed forty of his former colleagues for the book creating a tale of skill, initiative, resourcefulness, humour, luck, and adventure. This is a fast-paced, meticulously researched and compelling account written by someone who was there, in the cockpit of a Wessex helicopter. If you liked Apache, Vulcan 607 and Chickenhawk, you'll love Scram! The word "Scram" was used to warn other junglies to go to ground or risk being shot down by their own side as Argentinean jets blasted through 'bomb alley'.

First envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci and first deployed in World War II, the helicopter is now a universal icon of modern warfare, a key component of combat planning around the world, and one of the military's most versatile and effective tools. Helicopters: An Illustrated History of Their Impact covers the development of helicopters from a concept in Leonardo daVinci's mind to the first successful machines in the early 1900s to the latest tilt-rotor designs. Time and again, in a story of constant innovation, designers answered the concerns of military planners with more maneuverable, more capable rotorcraft. With expert analysis and specific details of every significant model ever used, Helicopters shows how these once denigrated machines became essential to a variety of missions (reconnaissance, transport, attack, support, evacuation, urban combat, quick strikes behind enemy lines, and more). In addition, the book looks at the impact of rotorcraft beyond the military, including their ever-widening role in emergency medical care, police work, traffic control, agriculture, news reporting, and more.

Rattler One-Seven puts you in the helicopter seat, to see the war in Vietnam through the eyes of an inexperienced pilot as he transforms himself into a seasoned combat veteran. At the age of twenty, Chuck Gross spent his 1970-71 tour with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company flying UH-1 Huey helicopters. He inserted special operations teams into Laos and participated in Lam Son 719, a misbegotten attempt to assault and cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail, during which his helicopter was shot down and he was stranded in the field.

This study explains how Westland dominated British helicopter production and why government funding and support failed to generate competitive "all-British" alternatives. In doing so, the book evaluates broader historiographic assumptions about the purported "failure" of british aircraft procurement during the early post-war period and considers the scope and limitations of licensed production as a government-mandated procurement strategy.