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..........Bristow Base: Redhill Main Hangar, U.K.

Around the mid-seventies a new head office was constructed
at Redhill Aerodrome, in Surrey. Bristows had been operating
there for many years from some of the older hangars on the
airfield and it was decided to combine the office block with a
new relatively large hangar.

During the last 25 years, Redhill's main hangar has been
involved with heavy maintenance, line maintenance, major
repairs and modification programmes on Bristow aircraft as well as customer
machines. The scope of work carried out has been immense, from the smallest
scheduled maintenance inspection up to Search and Rescue conversions and
major accident repairs.

With its on-site C.A.A. approved design office, sheet metal department and
avionic workshop the hangar has been able to carry out industry leading
modifications such as I.H.U.M.S. ( Integrated Health and Usage Monitoring
System) and the Dual Hoist fit on the S.A.R. Sikorsky S-61s.

This photo shows the base layout. The building with the blue
door now houses the sheet metal and avionic departments.
For many years the Bristows empire was controlled from
the offices behind the hangar. At present ( 2000 ) the
company is in a state of flux due to the tie-up with Air
Logistics and its own internal reorganisation which will leave Redhill as
a primary base for a customer based technical services department under
the banner " United Helicopter Maintenance", a joint venture with Air
Logistics of U.S.A.


A 1977 picture showing a couple of Bristow Bell 212s, a
Beech Baron and ex Ghanian or South African Wessex.
This is very similar to the hangar today which also has a
Bristow 212 in it ( G-BALZ ).

A Guiness Book of Record attempt at seeing how many
Bell 212s can be squashed into a fixed area. These are ex-
Iran machines after the pull-out, and apparently all arrived
over one weekend. So how many were there?

Yet another typical Redhill Main Hangar collection, a couple
of Bristow S76s, a customer Super Puma and of course the
everlasting Bell 212s which, incidentally, is what I worked on
the first day I joined Bristows in 1979 and will probably see
me through to retirement!

Redhill Aerodrome before the main office block/hangar were
constructed. At this time Bristows operated from the hangars
on the left.