Police and emergency services helicopters have undergone a dramatic metamorphosis since the mid-1980s, evolving from the equivalent of the Sopwith Camel to a worthy contemporary of the Eurofighter Typhoon, according to McAlpine Helicopters commercial director Dick Richardson. McAlpine, a Eurocopter distributor, outfits public-service helicopters in the UK.
The Twin Squirrel delivered to London’s Metropolitan Police in 1987 was the public-service equivalent of the Sopwith Camel, minimally equipped but comfortable and able to fill the requirements of a police helicopter. “The main role is observation, and it could move accurately and quickly,” he told a recent conference on the future for public-service helicopters. Each helicopter McAlpine has equipped for the emergency services during the intervening years has shared 85 to 90 percent commonality with its predecessor, but the small capability improvement achieved with every installation has transformed the police helicopter from something close to the standard model to “something incomparable to anything anybody else flies,” Richardson said.
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