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p>The Westland Scout was a light military helicopter developed and produced by the Westland Helicopters company from the United Kingdom. The Scout first took flight on 29 August 1960. The Scout and another craft known as the Wasp were both developed from the Saunders-Roe P.531, which in turn was developed from the Skeeter. Originally the Scout would have been named the Sprite. The Scout was developed in response to a request by the UK Ministry of Defense for a general-purpose military helicopter that could seat five to six people. The Scout’s layout consists of two seats fore and three aft. However, the rear bench could be replaced with a four-seat one if modified doors were also installed. As a medevac it could carry four stretchers in total: two inside and two outside. The standard landing gear consisted of a set of skids. The Scout could be modified into a light attack helicopter with armor and two skid-mounted forward-firing machine guns. Alternatively a single pintle-mounted machine could be installed in the rear cabin. The pintle mount was available both on the starboard and port sides of the helicopter. The Scout could also fulfil an anti-tank role when equipped with four wire-guided missiles. The Army Air Corps made use of the Scout in various theaters across the world. This included Borneo, Aden and Radfan, the Falklands and Northern Ireland. In total about 150 units were produced until 1968. The Scout has been officially retired from service.
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