Saunders - Roe Skeeter The Saunders - Roe Skeeter was a two - seat training and scout helicopter produced by Saunders - Roe ( " Saro " ) of Cowes and Southampton , in the United Kingdom . The Skeeter has the distinction of being the first helicopter to be used by the British Army Air Corps . Design and development . In 1947 the Cierva Autogiro Company began work on the Cierva W . 14 Skeeter , a small two - seat helicopter suitable for both civil use and as a military observation aircraft . The Skeeter was a single - engined helicopter of conventional configuration , with a 29 foot ( 8 . 84 metre ) three - bladed main rotor and a three - bladed anti - torque rotor mounted at the end of a triangular section tailboom . The crew of two sat in a glazed cabin , with the engine , a 110 hp Jameson FF - 1 air cooled horizontally opposed piston engine , mounted behind the crew and under the main rotor . A fixed tricycle undercarriage was fitted . The first prototype Skeeter made its maiden flight at Eastleigh airfield on 10 October 1948 . The helicopter proved to be underpowered , and the experimental Jameson engine was prone to overheating , so it was decided to develop a Mark 2 Skeeter , to be fitted with the well established de Havilland Gipsy Major 10 , giving 145 hp ( 108 kW ) . The Skeeter 2 first flew on 15 November 1949 , but it soon became apparent that it suffered from severe ground resonance problems that Cierva struggled to resolve , causing it to be destroyed during ground testing on 26 June 1950 . Despite these problems , Cierva received an order from the Ministry of Supply for three improved Skeeters , ( two Mark 3 and one Mark 4 ) for evaluation by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy . These three aircraft were not completed before Saunders - Roe took over the Skeeter programme from Cierva in January 1951 . Testing showed that these aircraft remained underpowered and that the ground resonance problems had not been resolved , causing official interest to be suspended with Saunders - Roe undertaking a long series of company funded tested to identify the causes and to identify solutions to the problems . The solution involved a redesigned undercarriage and revised blade friction dampers on the rotor head . This allowed Saunders - Roe to finally demonstrate that the ground resonance problems had been fixed with the Skeeter Mark 5 in March 1954 . This re - ignited official interest in the Skeeter , with an order for four Skeeter Mark 6s with 200 hp ( 149 kW ) Gipsy Major 200 engines ( designated AOP . 10 and T . 11 by the British armed forces ) for evaluation , and finally production orders for 64 AOP . 12s , with a 215 hp ( 160 kW ) engine , were placed from 1956 , with deliveries starting in 1958 . Operational history . The British Army ordered 64 Skeeter 6 ' s , to be designated as the Skeeter AOP . 12 ( Air Observation Platform ) , and the Skeeter finally entered service in October 1956 . With the merger of the helicopter activities of the British Bristol Aeroplane Company , Fairey and Saro with Westland Aircraft in 1960 , plans to develop a turbine powered version were abandoned – although this knowledge was used in the development of the Westland Scout and Westland Wasp through to the P . 531 which was based on the Skeeter airframe . Survivors . There is one remaining flying example of the Skeeter though a number are held by British museums , including the Museum of Army Flying . Saunders - Roe Skeeter AOP Mk12 on display at ( [ The Helicopter Museum ] ) Weston - super - Mare ( [ North Somerset ] ) , ( [ United Kingdom ] )