FIND US
CALL US
BOOK & SAVE

Saro Skeeter AOp12

Saro Skeeter AOP12

The Saro Skeeter AOp 12 was a two-seat reconnaissance and artillery-observation-post light helicopter which served with the British Army Air Corps between 1957 and 1967. It was powered by a de Havilland Gipsy Major Type 140 piston engine, delivering 215 bhp at 2850 rpm. It had a cruising speed of 76 knots, a service ceiling of 12800 feet and a range of 160 nautical miles.

The prototype helicopter was designed by the Cievra Autogyro Company as the W14 with a 106hp Jameson FF-1 engine and first flew on 8 October 1948, but early development aircraft were under-powered and suffered from resonance problems. The Cievra Company was acquired by Saunders Roe in January 1951. In 1957 a small number of Skeeter AOp 10s were delivered to the Army and a T.11 to the RAF and about 50 AOP 12s and T13s were delivered in 1959. A small number of Skeeters, designated Marks 50 and 51, served with the Federal German Army.

The Skeeter AOp 12 (S2/5107) at the Museum first flew in February 1959 and served with the Army Air Corps as XM553 until it was struck off charge on 25 April 1968. It was restored in 1979 as closely as possible to the 1961 specification, which resulted in the removal of some later modifications. As G-AWSV, it last flew in 1998.

BACK TO COLLECTIONS

Blackburn Mercury Monoplane 1911 (Replica) AH (BAPC) 130 YAM Jan.1995

The Blackburn Mercury Monoplane is regarded as the first truly successful aircraft made by Blackburn at their factory in Leeds. The Mercury I, powered by a 50 hp Isaacson radial engine, was displayed at the Olympia Aero Show in March 1911 and made its debut flying from the beach at Filey with the newly formed Blackburn Flying School. In May 1911, it flew from Filey to Scarborough and back in 19 minutes at an average speed of 50 mph, reaching an altitude of 1200 feet.
This aircraft crashed the next day when the engine seized and the propeller flew off! The Mercury I was followed by two Mercury II aircraft powered by 50 hp Gnome engines, and six Mercury III aircraft, with a number of different engines. Sadly, a Renault powered Mercury crashed at Filey in December 1911, killing an instructor and passenger.
The Museum’s replica was built for Yorkshire Television in 1979 for the Edwardian drama series ‘Flambards’, and was taxied with a car engine. It came to YAM on 10th January 1995 and after a long period in storage it was painstakingly restored to a superb display standard, and was unveiled in June 2000 by Professor Robert Blackburn, grandson of Robert Blackburn, the aviation pioneer.

AVRO 504K ‘H1968’ (Replica) AH (BAPC) 42 YAM Oct. 1994

The Avro 504 first flew in 1913. In the opening phases of the First World War, it served with front-line squadrons in the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service for bombing and reconnaissance, but from 1915 onwards the aircraft entered the training role for which it is most celebrated.

Over 8,000 Avro 504s were built. In 1918, the Royal Air Force had about 3,000, of which 2,276 were trainers.

The Avro 504 was stationed at many Yorkshire airfields, including Tadcaster near the A1/A64 junction, where a period hangar can still be seen.

The Yorkshire Air Museum’s replica was built by apprentices at RAF Halton and appeared at the Royal Tournament in 1968 to commemorate what was then fifty years since the end of the First World War. The aircraft was refurbished in early 2015 to be transported to Thiepval, Northern France, for the Somme Centenary commemoration event, on request of the British Government. In May 2018, it was also displayed at the impressive Hotel Les Invalides in central Paris for a joint RAF / French Air Force event to mark the Centenary of the Royal Air Force and over 100 years of British and French Air Force collaboration.