Airfix 03063 Westland Navy Lynx Mk 8

The Westland Lynx is a British-made multipurpose helicopter of full metal construction with a fixed undercarriage, in a classic layout with a main rotor and a tail rotor on the beam. The drive is provided by two Rolls-Royce 42-1 turboshaft engines with a capacity of 1015 HP each. The first prototype flew in 1971, and serial production started in 1978 and is still ongoing. By 2009, approximately 450 helicopters of this type had been manufactured. The machine was also manufactured under license in France by Aerospatiale.

The Westland Lynx was created to replace the Westland Scout and Westland Wasp helicopters. When designing it, particular emphasis was placed on the high reliability of the entire machine, good performance, and efforts to maintain high susceptibility to modernization. These goals have been achieved. In the course of serial production, two main development versions of the helicopter were created: the first, designated as Lynx AH.1, was dedicated to the military aviation of the army and was used as a transport and anti-tank helicopter. There were also several versions of it, such as the Lynx AH.7 with a fuselage and rotor made to a greater extent from composites and with richer avionics. The second major version was designated as Lynx HAS.1 - it served as an anti-submarine helicopter (ZOP) and a search and rescue machine. This version has also undergone numerous modifications and has been revised several times, eg HAS.3. Westland Lynx helicopters successfully participated in many armed conflicts, including the Falklands War (1982) or in both wars with Iraq (1990-1991 and 2003). They were also exported to several countries, including Brazil, Denmark and Germany.