SEA KING Helicopter drops into Wesley

Wesley College in South Perth just about came to a standstill on Wednesday morning when Wesley Old Boy, Sands Skinner, returned to his old school by dropping onto the oval in a Royal Australian Navy Sea King helicopter!

If this helicopter could talk, it would have a lot of stories to tell from its thirty odd year history. It has been deployed to just about every area of confrontation in the world, as well as rescue efforts in the recent Queensland floods.

This visit also afforded Wesley Chaplain, Reverend Allan Mackenzie, an opportunity to get back into the helicopter’s pilot seat, albeit on the ground. In 1971 and 1972 Reverend Mackenzie served in 817 Squadron operating from HMAS Melbourne (II) when he was seconded from the Royal Navy.

Royal Navy’s ‘HMS Queen Elizabeth’ under construction

Pictured here is construction of the first of the two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, HMS Queen Elizabeth, as workers at BAE Systems’ Govan yard moved two giant sections of the hull together for the first time.

The structure is so big that it fills an entire hall at Govan and now extends beyond the doors onto the yard.

It took a team of 20 employees and remote controlled transporters just one hour to move 1,221 tonnes of steel over 100 metres across the shipyard. The hull section was then manoeuvred carefully into position to line up with the rest of the block.

The two sections brought together today form the mid section of the hull up to the hangar deck and is referred to as Lower Block 03. Workers will continue to outfit the block, which on completion will weigh over 9,300 tonnes and stand over 23 metres tall, 63 metres long and 40 metres wide. She is set to embark to Rosyth in the latter part of this year, where HMS Queen Elizabeth will be assembled in the dry dock.

Royal Navy Merlins Fly to the Anti-submarine Exercise

A Royal Navy helicopter squadron is taking part in NATO's largest Mediterranean anti-submarine exercise, Proud Manta, for the first time.

Merlin Mk1 maritime patrol helicopters from 814 Naval Air Squadron (also known as 'The Flying Tigers') have flown 1,400 miles (2,250km) across Europe from Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose in Helston, Cornwall, to Sicily in order to take part in the exercise and practise hunting submarines.

Run by NATO, Exercise Proud Manta (formally Noble Manta) sees ships, aircraftand submarines from the USA, Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Greece and Turkey, plus hosts Italy, converging on the central Mediterranean for a week.