Leonardo aw 101 Merlin eh 101 medium-lift multi-role helicopter the Agusta Westland
aw 101 Merlin formerly the a industries eh 101 Merlin is a medium lift multi-purpose
multi-role helicopter developed as a joint venture by the British and Italians to date
sales have increased in its battlefield reach has broadened considerably since
development began in the 1980s the aw101 is a large helicopter system driven by no fewer
than three turboshaft engines in the airframe can support a myriad of military and civilian minded
requirements to include general passenger transport maritime defense anti-submarine
warfare ASW airborne early-warning a aew search-and-rescue saw amphibious support
disaster relief and medical evacuations over 140 of the type have been produced as of this writing
by the late 1970s the world was still embroiled in its Cold War arms race another war waging across
the European battlefields remained an all too real possibility and undoubtedly a plethora of military
weaponry would be called into play should the Cold War ever go hot key to the success of NATO
in the region would be control of the surrounding waters and as such ship based rotary wing systems
would prove of great value the British and Italian navies found themselves looking for
a more modern anti-ship anti-submarine option to replace their aging Americans sikorsky h-34
me these being produced locally by Westland and Agusta in their respective countries while the
British had already committed to the development of the proposed Western w/g 0.34 no prototype was
constructed before a joint development initiative was struck concerning Westland and Agusta to
produce a common end product as a cost-effective solution to complement the agreement a industry's
European helicopter industries were set up in London in 1980 as a 50/50 partnership
each participating nation could then receive the same helicopter product at cost differing only
slightly in their final delivery presentation to suit their individual Navy requirements
to evolve the product further the helicopter was then envisioned to compete on the global market
against the Sikorsky uh-60 Black Hawk medium-lift helicopters which had already entered service in
1979 the Agusta Westland helicopter would be designated as the aw101 and in 1984 formal
agreements between Great Britain and Italy was secured and a mock-up was showcased the
following year at the Paris Air Show the first prototype pp1 went airborne on October 9th 1987
and proved the large helicopter design viable the program evolved to include PP 2 through PP 9 each
developed to achieve specific program goals the British made use of the PP 1 test bed while the
Italians work the design through the PP to this achieving first flight on November 26 1987 for
the British the engine of choice became the rolls-royce Turbomeca RT M 332 series turbo
shaft while the Italians elected for the General Electric's et 7-6 series the latter produced
locally under license through alfa romeo AVO and Fiat initially a rear loading ramp was only
an Italian military requirement but this was eventually taken up by the British military as
well the PP 3 was the civilian minded prototype and first flew on September 30th 1988 PP 4 in PP
5 first flights on June 15 1989 in October 24 1989 respectively were both Westland products
the latter achieving a ship-borne landing in 1991 Agusta delivered the PP 6 to which first
flight was recorded on April 26 1989 and this prototype made its first ship on landing in 1991
as well Westland claimed the PP 8 prototype whilst Agusta finalized the PP 9 prototype
all appeared well for the joint helicopter endeavor until the end of the Cold War in
1991 this global shift forced all competing frontline militaries in their governing
politicians to rethink spending efforts in a new world devoid of an arms race the Canadians who
initially held interest in the new a industries product abandoned thoughts of procurement in
1993 after a new government was elected steep financial penalties resulted in the cancellation
and a new helicopter competition emerged that once again ended with the selection of the eh
101 in 1997 despite the setback Britain and Italy were forced to press on and make good
on their expensive venture ultimately completing development and securing quantitative production
orders for their respective navies these orders were formally placed in 1995 with deliveries
beginning in 1997 in 2000 Agusta and Westland were formally merged to become the anglo-italian
concern of a greased Westland and all previous product designations still in production were
therefore updated to the well known or designation with this merger the a industries product banner
was no longer needed and dropped from you soon after in June of 2007 the eh-101 was officially
being designated as the aw 101 the British went on to know the helicopter is lead Merlin
much care was taken into the design arrangement and appearance of the merlin generating a well
contoured system with the cockpit fitted at the extreme forward end of the tubular fuselage
with the cabin just off the cockpit is well glazed with excellent vision to the front above below and
to the sides for both pilot positions with entry accomplished via two hinged automobile style doors
for each person cockpit controls in the Merlin are redundant they only require operation by
a single pilot the cabin area is attached to the cargo hold and is dotted with rounded rectangular
windows for viewing out of the aircraft there are blister type viewing ports further aft to assist
in loading unloading the cargo hold is to the rear under the tapered empennage the power plants are
all fitted into streamlined compartments atop the cabin cargo area and drive a tail rotor via
a long running shaft within the tail boom assembly the tail boom is completed with a pair of low set
horizontal tail planes and a single vertical tail fin and it's specifically designed to be
tapered from the ground to allow access to the rear fuselage powered cargo door the five bladed
rotor mast sits close to the fuselage roof and sports distinct blade tips designed for maximum
efficiency when cutting through the air these are known as berp from the Western Ray British
experimental rotor program rotor diameter is 61 feet the engine nacelles protrude from the sides
of the aircraft roof the tail rotor is a similar assembly though naturally smaller in overall
dimension four bladed and offset to the port side of the aircraft to counter the torque spin of the
main rotor assembly the mane and tail rotors can be folded for shipboard storage the undercarriage
is wholly retractable and consists of a pair of single wield main landing gear legs and a twin
wield nose landing gear leg the main legs retract into side sponsons attached to the fuselage after
the midships in the design while the nose landing gear attracts under the cockpit floor merlin
construction incorporates Kevlar armor along the sides underside and cockpit framing as well as
aluminum lithium alloy throughout the main rotor blades are made out of composite materials for
lighter overall weight and efficiency including noise reduction beyond its standard crew of four
two pilots and two specialists the Merlin can house 45 standing infantryman as transport 24
seated infantry if installed with cabin seating or 16 medical litters with room for applicable
medical crew mãe de VA c roll in lieu of cabin personnel the Merlin is completely capable of
hauling cargo pallets in the hold or through an underslung function under the fuselage the Merlin
can be outfitted with various avionics suites to suite operator requirements this includes
both land-based in maritime types that aid in navigation communications automated flight and
landing additionally radar systems are equally modular in the Merlin design and crew consist of
surveillance search and weather avoidance radar variations a radar warning receiver
rwr alerts the crew of inbound threats including homing missiles there is an integrated Direction
infrared countermeasures suite with automatically dispensing chaff and flare launchers navigation is
through GPS night-vision goggles provide pilot sighting in the dark and is further aided by
the modular turret system that can accept forward-looking infra-red FL IR the Merlin
series can be left unarmed but its standard armament is a self defensive network of up
to three 7.62 millimeters general-purpose machine guns one machine gun can be fitted
to the powered loading ramp at the rear to which the ramp remains lowered in flight this position
can engage any ground-based entities engaging the Merlin itself will provide cover fire for
infantry entering or exiting the aircraft each fuselage side can sport machine guns on pintle
mounts for similar defense more offensive military minded rolls of the Merlin can see
wing stubs fitted for the mounting of unguided rocket pods and machine gun pods for maritime
defense some navies have outfitted their Merlin's with up to four homing torpedoes anti-submarine
depth charges and anti-ship missiles collectively these weapons serve to counter threats posed by
both surface and underwater enemies as needed external fuel tanks can be installed to the
aircraft for increased operational range while the Merlin is also designed to accept in-flight
refueling from a lead aircraft the British Merlin is fitted with no fewer than three
large rolls-royce Turbomeca RTM 320 201 series turboshaft engines each developing up to 2,000
312 shaft horsepower all told this supplies the basic airframe with a top speed of 192 miles per
hour and operational range out to 863 miles in a service ceiling of up to 15,000 feet rate of
climb is listed at 2,000 feet per minute per general empty weight is 23,000 150 pounds with
a maximum takeoff weight mtow of 30 1,200 pounds global operational use of the Merlin series has
grown since the types inception and today include Algeria Canada Denmark India Indonesia Italy Japan
Portugal in the United Kingdom the Algerian Navy is expected to take delivery of the type soon the
Canadian model is designated as the CH 149 ALW 320 cormorant the royal danish air force operates
Merlin's with their Escadrille 722 while India has ordered the aw101 is a VIP transport within
the IAF similarly the indonesian air force has placed a quantitative order for a dozen airframes
the italian navy stocks its first and third flight groups with merlyn's japan makes use of the aw101
in both military and civilian minded roles law enforcement portugal has set up one squadron
of Merlin's under the squadron 751 puma name the British Royal Navy began use of the merlin
through its 700 M Naval Air Squadron flight group charged with evaluating the platform from 2000 to
2008 since then the Merlin has seen considerable use in the 814 820 824 and 829 naval air squadrons
the British royal air force is another operator of the helicopter stocking the number 28 and number
70 eight squadrons out of RAF Benson all British Portuguese and Danish helicopters are known under
the merlin name and the British remained the largest quantitative operator of the type
there are several listed designations in the Merlin family line and most deal with its
particular assignment within its respective military force rather than a drastic change
in design or operating scope production of the helicopter has been ongoing since the
1990s and notable variants include the Royal Navy Merlin hm1h m2 hc3 and HC 3a
2vh 71 kestrels are under consideration as u.s. presidential VIP transport mounts with lockheed
martin being the primary contractor the CH 148 petrol was the initial proposed Canadian
military platform on order but later dropped from procurement reemerging as the CH 149 cormorant
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