Bits & pieces
Apart from their incredibly quiet rotor blade design seen here there's an abundance of detail visible on these Navy Merlin HC.4's
There's the 'cable cutters', one just ahead of the main rotor housing plus a pair under the nose along with another pair by the wiper motor housings - all designed to snag and cut any cables they might encounter accidentally when on low level missions
The green rectangle below the cockpit is part of the inflatable flotation system deployed in the event of a ditching and just below and behind that is a 'Chaff' and Flare safety device - both the latter are part of the system firing strips of foil (Chaff) or Flares used to deter heat seeking or radar guided missiles
Not sure what the box-like lump is just behind the forward entry door (possibly the Chaff and Flare dispenser?) but these were added when the HC.4's were 'Navalised' after their original RAF ownership
Other than that various hand and foot holds can be seen for access and maintenance purposes
There are also two small warning receivers fore and aft of those lower nose windows plus various added lumps and bumps under the forward belly and under the nose, the latter seems to be a standard fit (possibly a weather radar) across the HC.4 and 4A fleet of which these are.
The 4 is the ex RAF model and the 4A are the ones which were destined for the Royal Danish Air Force but were swapped on Yeovil's production line to replace RAF ones that we lost during the Afghanistan War
Those destined for Denmark had a double bump nose profile but the latter have since been removed and a new nose as here, standardised across the fleet
Along with folding rotors being added when the Navy acquired them, as can be seen on the extreme left-hand example, the tail now folds too for stowage aboard our Carriers and Ships that can operate these huge Merlin helicopters
These also differ from the Merlin HM.2 which the Navy operate in the Anti-Submarine and AEW roles in that they have a rear loading ramp and feature twin wheels all round whereas the HM.2 has no loading ramp and only a single wheel on each main leg
276A2609
Bits & pieces
Apart from their incredibly quiet rotor blade design seen here there's an abundance of detail visible on these Navy Merlin HC.4's
There's the 'cable cutters', one just ahead of the main rotor housing plus a pair under the nose along with another pair by the wiper motor housings - all designed to snag and cut any cables they might encounter accidentally when on low level missions
The green rectangle below the cockpit is part of the inflatable flotation system deployed in the event of a ditching and just below and behind that is a 'Chaff' and Flare safety device - both the latter are part of the system firing strips of foil (Chaff) or Flares used to deter heat seeking or radar guided missiles
Not sure what the box-like lump is just behind the forward entry door (possibly the Chaff and Flare dispenser?) but these were added when the HC.4's were 'Navalised' after their original RAF ownership
Other than that various hand and foot holds can be seen for access and maintenance purposes
There are also two small warning receivers fore and aft of those lower nose windows plus various added lumps and bumps under the forward belly and under the nose, the latter seems to be a standard fit (possibly a weather radar) across the HC.4 and 4A fleet of which these are.
The 4 is the ex RAF model and the 4A are the ones which were destined for the Royal Danish Air Force but were swapped on Yeovil's production line to replace RAF ones that we lost during the Afghanistan War
Those destined for Denmark had a double bump nose profile but the latter have since been removed and a new nose as here, standardised across the fleet
Along with folding rotors being added when the Navy acquired them, as can be seen on the extreme left-hand example, the tail now folds too for stowage aboard our Carriers and Ships that can operate these huge Merlin helicopters
These also differ from the Merlin HM.2 which the Navy operate in the Anti-Submarine and AEW roles in that they have a rear loading ramp and feature twin wheels all round whereas the HM.2 has no loading ramp and only a single wheel on each main leg
276A2609