Norwegian SAR Queen at Yeovil
Kevin Wills made this great photo of the Norwegian SAR Queen, temporary registered as ZZ111, at Yeovil (UK) on 4 November 2020.
The AW101 Mk612, future serial 0280 (construction number 50280) is the twelfth SAR helicopter for the Luftforsvaret (RNoAF, Royal Norwegian Air Force).
It is almost seven years since Norway ordered sixteen new AW101 Mk612 from Leonardo Helicopters to replace the Westland Mk43B Sea King produced at the same factory in Yeovil up to 48 years ago.
On 1 September 2020, the first three AW101s were officially handed over to 330 skv at Stavanger/Sola after a period of testing with Norway's Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) unit, also at Stavanger/Sola. At this official hand over, the new helicopter was named SAR Queen.
The original plan was to name the helicopter on 20 December 2017. But due to the accident with one of the AW101s on 24 November 2017, this schedule was abandoned. This accident also contributed to delaying the OT&E phase), which was originally intended to take one year. The delivery schedule was interupted and the idea that all of the 330 skv bases would have had the new helicopters in 2020.
So far, half of the number of AW101s have been delivered to Norway, with five SAR Queens still operated by the OT&E. The following AW101s are still at Yeovil:
AW101 Mk612
0262 50262/NOR01 ZZ100 still in primer
0265 50265/NOR03 ZZ102 l/n may20
0279 50279/NOR11 ZZ110 f/f 28sep20
0280 50280/NOR12 ZZ111 f/f 03nov20
0281 50281/NOR13 ZZ112
0282 50282/NOR14 ZZ113
0283 50283/NOR15 ZZ114
0284 50284/NOR16 ZZ115
The venerable Sea King has already flown for a long time in overtime, but even though some now receive a well-deserved pension at the Stavanger/Sola, a small number of Sea Kings will remain in service until 2023.
Photo: Kevin Wills