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The Saro (Saunders-Roe) P.531 is a British-made helicopter created by Saunders-Roe limited. Saro was founded in 1929, but became defunct in 1964. The company merged with Westland, which became the Agusta-Westland company that we know today. The P.531 began life as an on-paper design in 1957 and in some ways drew upon the knowledge gained in the development of the company’s earlier Skeeter helicopter. Unlike the Skeeter however, the P.531 was a five-seater helicopter as opposed to a two-seater. While the P.531 was intended as an improved replacement for the Skeeter, the project was canned despite interest from the Indian government. The design did however serve as a basis for the Scout Standard which was used by the Indian Army Air Corps. The P.531 was all-metal and powered by a Blackburn Turmo 600 gas turbine engine. The Turmo was however a less powerful power plant than the airframe was designed for. If a suitable engine had been fitted it would have increased the payload capacity of the helicopter. After the initial prototypes were developed, three more P.531s were delivered to the Royal Navy so that they could become familiar with the craft and trial them under real conditions. The Navy decided that they wanted to order 30, but by this time Saro had already been subsumed within Westland and the helicopters that were delivered were known as the Westland Wasp.
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