THE BLOKE BEHIND THE DESIGNS

This little piece of the internet is dedicated to one of my passions - If you've not guessed it yet, it’s the mighty Westland Lynx. Specifically, side view drawings of both the Lynx and the Wildcat.

I started drawing technical side views not long after the photo to the right was taken (RAF Laarbruch 1971). Instead of scrawling over colouring books, I sharpened my Crayolas and took to measuring random objects and then drawing them to scale. My dad even built me a little technical drawing box (which I still have to this day). Years later, my passion for technical drawing took me towards designing, developing and creating 3D CAD models for flight simulators (predominantly Lynx). And more recently, using my eye for detail to construct a myriad of scale models (again, predominantly Lynx).

The main driving force behind creating these side view drawings was there simply wasn't an accurate side view of the Lynx available. There are a handful of fairly generic drawings but nothing that would pass muster with those that have flown or worked with the Lynx. This drove me to producing something that was 100% accurate and more importantly, something that was personal to the individual.

One advantage that assists me in creating very accurate side view drawings is that I've been lucky enough to fly the Lynx amassing approximately 4000 hours on the type. I started flying the Lynx in 1994 and became a Qualified Helicopter Instructor teaching on the type in 2002. More recently I've moved on to the AW159 Wildcat and have been flying that type since 2012 conducting trials and teaching.