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As the Lynx established itself with overseas orders, a decision was
made to launch a larger aircraft, based on Lynx dynamic components
as a private venture on the civil market. This was to be the
12000lb/14 passenger Westland
30. The W30 met with some initial success in the UK and
USA, but the expected orders never materialised in time to fill
the production gap which was predicted once the UK military
orders had been delivered.
The mid 1980s proved to be a difficult time for Westland. On the one
hand there was a need to find a suitable partner to invest capital,
sufficient to sustain the company over the period when a new
product could be brought on line. At the same time the company
was making considerable investment in composite blade technology
and design of a replacement for the Sea
King.
Westland favoured a proposal for a major link with Sikorsky but the
then Secretary of State for Defence, Micheal Hesseltine, preferred
a European option. The Westland dilemma made national news at
the time, but the link with Sikorsky went ahead and Westland
survived.
Westland had already entered an agreement with the Italian firm Agusta,
to collaborate in the design, development and production of
a new large helicopter to meet the requirement for a Sea King
replacement. The two companies formed a joint company, EH Industries,
specifically to produce the EH101,
a multi-role helicopter designed to meet naval, military utility
and civil requirements.
 There
followed an interesting turn of events whereby at the time when
the firms financial future had been in doubt, the Lynx
took the World absolute speed record for helicopters (400.87kph
/ 249.1 mph) with the new composite rotor blades and the prototype
EH101 flew for the first time.
The EH101 development programme progressed well, and in 1991 the Ministry
of Defence placed an order for 44 anti-submarine warfare aircraft
designated EH101 Merlin
HM Mk1. Following a competition, the prime contract was
placed with a consortium led by the US company IBM, supported
by Westland, in preference to a rival consortium led by British
Aerospace and GEC Marconi. The need for the competition and
the involvement of IBM as Westland's partner was because neither
Westland or EHI were in a position to satisfy the MoD requirement
that the prime contractor must have sufficient resources to
underwrite the value of the whole £1.5 billion contract.
The engineering company GKN had been a major shareholder in the Westland
Group since 1987 and was one of the Groups strongest supporters.
Sikorsky's parent company, United Technologies, was the other
significant shareholder and in 1994 it decided to sell its holding.
GKN bought the UTC shares and launched a successful take-over
bid for Westland.
 Re-named
GKN Westland Helicopters in 1995, the substantial financial
muscle of GKN enabled the company to bid successfully as prime
contractor for the £600 million Support Helicopter contract
for the RAF (Merlin HC
Mk 3), and the £2 billion Attack Helicopter contract for
the Army Air Corps (WAH-64
Apache).
In 1998 GKN and Finnemeccanica announced that they were starting negotiations
to create a joint venture company by combining their respective
helicopter companies, Westland and Agusta. Those negotiations
were successfully concluded in July 2000. The company AgustaWestland,
will be the second largest helicopter company in the world,
with a turnover of more than US$2 Billion and a workforce of
some 10,000 people.
By retaining the name Westland, the new company is perpetuating the
proud heritage that has been associated with that name since
Sir Ernest Petter made his first approach to the admiralty in
1915.
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