WESTLAND 50

In this volume, handsomely illustrated with well over a hundred photographs and nearly fifty general arrangement drawings, the course of Westland's history is unfolded in authentic and absorbing fashion.

One day in April 1915, Ernest ans Percival Petter were asked asked by the Admiralty to help in building seaplanes for the national war effort. Work began in a new but small workshop outside Yeovil, and the first machine was completed by Christmas. They could little have thought then, that in the next fifty years the company would grow from that single workshop into one of the three major aircraft manufacturing groups in britain; the largest helicopter producing organisation in Europe; the pioneer of an entirely new and revolutionary form of transportation, the hovercraft; and the sponsor of the launch vehicle for Britain's modest but valuable space programme. In this volume, handsomely illustrated with well over a hundred photographs and nearly fifty general arrangement drawings, the course of Westland's history is unfolded in authentic and absorbing fashion.