Postwar British helicopters

[steelpillow]

The Centenary Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society 1866 - 1966 (Vol 70, No 661, January 1966) carries a piece (pp.235-242) by Raoul Hafner on "British Rotorcraft". He compiled his history by getting first-hand accounts from his helicopter-making colleagues (for he was among them), right back to the earliest pre-flight days, and skimming them for the overall picture. Those accounts were deposited with the RAeS and are presumably now with the rest of their archive in the National Aerospace Library, Farnborough.

What I offer here is his Table I: Rotorcraft Projects in the UK, 1945-1965.

Company	Flying aircraft	Unfinished projects
Auster		B9, C8
Bristol	B171, B173, B192	B190, B191, B192C, B193, B194, B199, B203, B214
Cierva	W9, W11, W14, Skeeter	W11T
Fairey	Gyrodyne, Jet Grodyne, Rotodyne Y, Ultra-Light Helicopter	Rotodyne Z
Hunting Percival		P74, P105
Saunders-Roe	P531, Scout, Wasp	Project 1954
Servotec	Grasshopper
Wallis	Autogyro
Westland	Dragonfly, Widgeon, Whirlwind, Westminster, Wessex, Sioux	W80, W90, W81, BEA Project, Canadian Navy Study, WG1, WG`3, WG7, WG11, WG13, RP8, RP10, RP12, RP15, RP17

Some of these are well enough known, but many are obscure. Does anybody know more about the more obscure types, or any that Hafner missed?

 

[Cy-27]

An later obscure type from the home of English brewing, the Zurowski P.1

Built by Eugene Zurowski at his home in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The two seat homebuilt helicopter ZP.1 is of an original design and was completed in 1977.

Zurowski managed to ground run the ZP.1 prior to his death in 1984. The helicopter carries a Polish Air Force logo in tribute to his families Polish heritage.

Preserved at the Newark Air Museum (Winthorpe). Registered by the British Aviation Preservation Council as aircraft BAPC-183.

 

[Hood]

Its not a bad listing but its not exhaustive, I think 90% of those can be found on the forum. This feels very much like a list of declassified projects that Hafner knew about or could reveal in 1965.
I don't think I've come across the Auster C8 before.
There are quite a few missing ones, certainly from the Saro stable post P.531 before Westland took over (P.538, P.541 leap out as missing). Hafner perhaps simplified the Bristol listing, Type 193 seems to have been allocated to at least two projects and 194 covered a small series it seems.

 

[hesham]

The Auster C8 was a light helicopter Project of 1956.

The SARO 1954 Projects were P.519,P.521,P.529 & P.530 light helicopters,led to develop P.531.

 

[Maveric]

Most of the Westland projects are unknown to me ...

 

[hesham]

The Auster C8 was a light helicopter Project of 1956.

The SARO 1954 Projects were P.519,P.521,P.529 & P.530 light helicopters,led to develop P.531.

Also for Auster; C2 & C3 were a light helicopter Projects of 1955 and C7 was a light helicopter Project of 1956.