Westland Widgeon (helicopter)


The Westland Widgeon was a helicopter developed by Westland Aircraft as a private venture improvement on the Westland WS-51 Dragonfly.

Design and development

Westland Aircraft decided to make a private venture improvement on the Westland WS-51 Dragonfly, which was a licensed Sikorsky design, helicopter by increasing the cabin capacity and replacing the Dragonfly's rotor head, blades and gearbox with the units used in the Westland Whirlwind. Three Dragonfly Series 1As were converted to WS-51 Series 2 Widgeons, and the first one flew on 23 August 1955.
There was a plan to take up to 24 existing Fleet Air Arm Dragonflies to Dragonfly HC.7 standard but this was abandoned and it contributed to the decision to stop progress.

Operators

; Ceylon