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21-748: It was established during 1978 following an agreement with the British aerospace company Westland Helicopters as an affiliate of the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI). It was intended for the venture to assemble the Westland Lynx helicopter, along with its Rolls-Royce Gem engines, at ABHCO's facility in Helwan , 18 miles south of Cairo , Egypt. Despite orders being placed for 250 ABHCO-built Lynx helicopters, none were ever completed due to an economic boycott being enacted on Egypt by

42-593: A 50% share in Aviation Training International. Finmeccanica contributed Agusta, including its transmissions and structures business, its share of EHI, its share of NH Industries , and its share of Bell Helicopter Textron . On 26 May 2004, GKN confirmed that it had agreed to sell its share of AgustaWestland to Finmeccanica for £1.06 billion. The sale was approved by the British government in October 2004. The former Westland site at

63-456: A considerably high level of debt and failed to fulfil licensing payments to Westland. During the 1980s and 1990s, Westland pursued ABHCO over incomplete payments, resorting to legal action being taken against the company. This aeronautical company–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Westland Helicopters Westland Helicopters was a British aircraft manufacturer . Originally Westland Aircraft ,

84-409: A cumulative batch of 250 locally-built Lynx helicopters, but these would be cancelled without redress. In response, Egypt declared that AOI, which had become a major industrial employer in the nation, would become a purely Egyptian endeavour. However, this unilateral declaration posed some legislative difficulties. The company remained active as a manufacturing venture for several years, but accumulated

105-466: A recently-acquired licensing agreement . Throughout the 1980s, the company undertook the assembly of a significant number of Gazelles; the associated British Arab Engine Company also produced the Turbomeca Astazou turboshaft powerplants for these Egyptian-build Gazelles. The fortunes of ABHCO were heavily shaped by both Egyptian and international politics alike. Following the signing of

126-534: The Camp David Accords between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, Egypt was subject to an economic boycott by many of its former Arab partners, who also moved to liquidate jointly held assets. This threw the existence of AOI, and therefore ABHCO, into a state of uncertainty for a time. All four member states in ABHCO had placed orders for

147-666: The Saro Skeeter helicopter, a development of the Cierva W.14 Skeeter and the Fairey Rotodyne compound gyroplane design. They continued to develop the latter, terminating their own Westland Westminster large transport design. The company continued to produce other aircraft under licence from Sikorsky ( Sea King ) and Bell ( Sioux ). They also produced their own designs: the Westland Scout and its naval variant

168-515: The WAH-64 and entering full operational service in 2005. In April 1994, Westland became a wholly owned subsidiary of GKN. In 2000 GKN and Finmeccanica agreed to merge their Westland and Agusta helicopter subsidiaries into a joint venture, Agusta Westland . GKN contributed Westland, its 50% share in its EH Industries (EHI) joint venture with Finmeccanica, the GKN aerospace transmissions business, and

189-857: The Westland Dragonfly , flying for the first time in 1948 and entering service with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force in 1953. Westland developed an improved version, the Widgeon , which was not a great success. Success with the Dragonfly was repeated with the Sikorsky S-55 which became the Whirlwind , and a re-engined turboshaft powered Sikorsky S-58 as the Wessex . The chairmanship of Eric Mensforth from 1953 to 1968 marked

210-603: The Westland Wasp from the P.531, which found favour with the Army Air Corps and Fleet Air Arm respectively. In the late 1960s, the company began a collaboration with Aérospatiale to manufacture three new helicopters, the Aérospatiale Puma , Aérospatiale Gazelle and Westland Lynx , with the last being a Westland design. Through Saunders-Roe, Westland became first a part owner then, from 1970,

231-640: The British and Egyptian governments initiated talks to establish a new Egyptian helicopter manufacturer. During March 1978, the Arab British Helicopter Company (ABHCO) was formally established in a $ 595 million deal with Westland Helicopters . It was structured as a joint venture between AOI and Westland, but based in Egypt. Initially, it was intended for ABHCO to engage in the domestic assembly of British Westland Lynx helicopters at ABHCO's Helwan facility. In addition to manufacturing

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252-640: The Second World War the company produced military aircraft including the Lysander , the Whirlwind and the Welkin . After the war, the company began to build helicopters under a licensing agreement with Sikorsky . From the mid-1950s the company came to increasingly concentrate on helicopters, eventually to the exclusion of other types. Production started with the Sikorsky S-51 , which became

273-637: The WG 44 light attack helicopter based on the Lynx dynamics, incorporating low observable technologies derived from its SUPERVISOR and PHOENIX UAS projects experience in 1977–1983. In 1987, in parallel with the Agusta A129 supported by Westland, Fokker , MBB and CASA , its WG 47 development was completed as a confidential private venture with a faceted fuselage, internal weapons and twin canted tail rotors . A side-exiting infrared suppressor integrated

294-578: The company focused on helicopters after the Second World War. It was amalgamated with several other British firms in 1960 and 1961. In 2000, it merged with Italian helicopter manufacturer Agusta to form AgustaWestland . In 2016, AgustaWestland merged into Leonardo , where it became the company's helicopters division under the Leonardo Helicopters brand. Westland Aircraft was founded in 1935 when Petters Limited split its aircraft manufacturing from its aircraft engine concerns. During

315-719: The exhausts and its tandem cockpit with the pilot in front had transparencies angled outward to eliminate optical glint . This presaged the US Army Boeing–Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche , rolled out in 1995 and cancelled in 2004, while the fuselage shaping was retained for the NH90 . In the 1990s, the company returned to profitability and grew as a result of several major contracts from the UK Ministry of Defence for EH101 Merlin helicopters and for 67 licence-built Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, designated

336-588: The fate of Britain's sole helicopter manufacturer. The split, which became known as the Westland affair , was over whether to push the company into a European deal or accept the US company's offer. Eventually, the link with Sikorsky was accepted. This saw both Sikorsky and Fiat acquire minority shareholdings in Westland. In 1988 GKN bought a 22% share of Westland from Hanson plc and Fiat. In 1984, Westland proposed

357-549: The other Arab nations during the late 1970s. Following a licensing agreement , the firm also undertook the manufacture of the Westland Gazelle . During the 1970s, Egypt commenced widescale efforts to replace arms imports with domestic production to provide military equipment to the rest of the Middle East as well as to build up Arab military industries. This international initiative was formalised in 1975; Egtpt

378-642: The sole owner of the British Hovercraft Corporation , subsequently trading as Westland Aerospace . Most designs were Saunders-Roe or Saunders-Roe derivatives. For many years Westland owned the main London heliport at Battersea . The company gradually fell into unprofitability. Sikorsky approached with a bail-out deal in 1985 that split the cabinet and led to the resignation of Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine in January 1986 over

399-426: The start of the transition, which was aided by the government when in 1959–1961 they forced the merger of the 20 or so aviation firms into three groups. British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Siddeley Group took over fixed-wing designs, while the helicopter divisions of Bristol , Fairey and Saunders-Roe (with their hovercraft ) were merged with Westland to form Westland Helicopters in 1961. Westland inherited

420-460: The type, other activities, including the overhaul, testing and sale of Lynx helicopters was also envisioned. A separate agreement was formalised with Rolls-Royce to license manufacture the Lynx's Gem turboshaft engines at the Helwan facility. During 1975, an initial order for 42 Westland Gazelles was placed by Egypt. It was agreed that ABHCO would undertake the assembly of these rotorcraft via

441-686: Was joined by various other Arab partner nations in the endeavour, including Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates , and Qatar . On 29 April 1975, these four nations signed a treaty that established the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), a defense manufacturing interest that based much of its infrastructure, including its headquarters and much of its production facilities, within Egypt. In parallel with these regional diplomatic developments, Egyptian officials were negotiating multiple industrial and defense-related agreements between both France and Britain. As early as September 1974,

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