Westland Helicopter’s Lynx Helicopter is reunited with its crew

It’s a small world!

Last week, I was with Andy Kyriacou of the 80’s pop legends, Modern Romance and I told him about an unusual reunion I heard about at one of my favourite holiday haunts – the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, Somerset (UK).

After twenty-six years service within two squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm the Westland Lynx XZ699 helicopter has been reunited with Robin Harper, one of the helicopter’s original ground crew from it’s first day of going into service back in 1980.

Robin Harper left the Royal Navy in 1989 and joined the Fleet Air Arm Museum. Meanwhile on leaving service after 26 punishing years, the Lynx was taken back to its original manufacturer, Westland Helicopters latest incarnation AgustaWestland, to be totally restored by the company’s engineering apprentices. Upon completion of the restoration project, the Lynx was formally handed over to The Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton by AgustaWestlands Chairman Alan Johnson.

Robin (pictured above with fellow crewmen 26 years) told me “I looked nostalgically at this remarkable aircraft thinking I used to service and maintain helicopters like this, and then I recognised its serial number and realised that I actually worked on this one!....It was like meeting an old friend after 26 years apart. It seems time has treated my helicopter more kindly than me!”

Anyway, I was talking to Andy about this and he said: “Funny you should mention RNAS Yeovilton where the Museum is located. While putting my papers together ready for the publication of my diaries from the music scene of the 1980’s, there were some posters and papers about the gig Modern Romance did at RNAS Yeovilton”.

It’s a small world isn’t it.

By the way, the Lynx helicopter can now be seen at the Fleet Air Arm Museum where it is taking ‘centre stage’ in the Museum’s Falklands exhibition. And, if you want to know more about Modern Romance, then visit www.modern-romance.com for details of their future gigs.