This paper deals solely with the operation of helicopters from ships in the Royal Navy

Since the great majority of helicopter flying at sea has been carried out from aircraft carriers, I propose first to deal with these operations, and secondly I shall describe a series of trials carried out in 1950 to determine the feasibility of operating from a specially constructed platform on a merchant type vessel

As an introduction I should like to give a brief history of the helicopter in the Royal Navy

In 1943 a small number of pilots were sent to the United States to learn the principles of Rotary Wing flying and on their return to this country a flight was formed equipped with Sikorsky R 4 machines Its task was to carry out communication, photographic and radar calibration duties