Above: Excerpt from "The Rest is History: A Policing Memoir", by David East, Chief Constable of Devon & Cornwall Police 1982-1983

In the early 1900s, humourous speculation appeared in satirical publications such as Punch Magazine about how the Police may one day take to the skies. A practical aeroplane didn't even exist at the time, let alone anything that resembled a helicopter, and aviation was largely limited to daring air balloon escapades. Military aviation in the United Kingdom made leaps and bounds during the First World War, followed by the development of safe and cost-effective methods for civilian aviation in the interwar years. For the Police however, there was simply no cause to jump on the bandwagon, at least not yet.

The model selected was an Aerospatiale 350 'Squirrel' with a single jet turbine engine which had a range of 400 miles and a top speed of around 150 mph. It was French built, with five seats, and was outfitted with an emergency flotation device and a Police VHF radio. The craft was loaned, rather than owned, from Mitsubishi Colt Executive. Based at Middlemoor Headquarters, experimentation began towards the end of 1979 and continued in earnest in the summer of 1980.

As with all aircraft in the UK, use of the helicopter was restricted by flying hours according to rules laid out by the Civil Aviation Authority. Over the course of 1981-1982, the unit was contracted for 600 flying hours which permitted around nine months continuous use averaging 3-4 flying hours per day. As the 'Squirrel' was on contract, it spent three months of the year in the custody of another customer elsewhere in the country; a solid argument for owning one outright.

What did the helicopter trial achieve? Amongst the advantages included the fast dispatch of Detectives to the scene of a murder in Falmouth, and the emergency transport of forensic samples connected to the murder to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Chepstow, Wales. This enabled the swift charging of the suspect and, ultimately, a considerable amount of money saved in overtime payments to CID!

A noticeable benefit was the ability to quickly assess traffic and congestion from the air during the summer months, which enabled traffic units to put in place the necessary controls and diversions. Moreover, the absence of a dedicated marine patrol unit was filled by the Air Observer's ability to survey miles of coastline very quickly.

The latter proved useful in the fight against drugs smuggling and demonstrated the helicopter's worth on many fronts.

Ultimately, the helicopter trial proved that a hypothetical air support unit could provide limitless rewards in terms of aerial observation and rapid transport and take a leading role in matters such as major incidents, crime enquiries, drug smuggling countermeasures, reconnaissance and surveillance, and missing persons searches. The running cost of a Force-owned helicopter was estimated at £150,000 per year. Throughout the trial, studies were undertaken of Police air support units in other countries, namely the United States, the Netherlands and Sweden. Comparisons were drawn with the Swedish Police who trialled and established Police helicopters in a similar manner to Devon & Cornwall Police around the same time.

Several aircraft were involved in the trial, all the same model, registries including G-EORR, G-JRBI, and G-MORR. The latter was destroyed in a tragic accident in 1998 whilst contracted to the television presenter Noel Edmonds. A nine-year-old boy died in the crash in Midlothian, Scotland, during a charity event.

The Devon & Cornwall Police Air Support Unit was formally established on 1st April 1982. The reliable Aerospatiale 350, call sign 'QB99', was purchased, fully liveried and with registration G-PDCC.

The Air Support Unit at Devon and Cornwall garnered national attention and soon other UK forces were sending Officers to the southwest to undertake Air Observer courses. In 1985, the two-week courses provided intensive intuition to Officers from West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Suffolk, Essex, and Ulster. At course's conclusion, Officers qualified as fully-fledged Air Observers convinced of the advantages of the helicopter over the fixed-wing aircraft.^iv G-PDCC was advertised for sale in 1986 as the Force intended to invest in a twin-engine replacement. It was sold for £215,000 to a private operator in Sweden where, it is alleged, it was used to herd cattle! For a short time, a sleeker AS355 was loaned from Lynton Aviation Ltd until the acquisition of the bulky Messerschmitt Bolkow 105 in 1987.^v

The move to a twin-engine craft was intended to comply with new Civil Aviation Authority restrictions on single-engine helicopters, which became illegal to operate at night in 1986. The new unit had six seats and carried a variety of equipment including stretchers, a cargo hook, and a loudspeaker. The hook was trialled, but ultimately not used operationally. A powerful searchlight was purchased for £8000 that sat idle for months awaiting approval from the Civil Aviation Authority. G-DCCH remained in faithful service for ten years, during which it was outfitted with an external imaging camera.

In 1996, the Air Support Unit was directly responsible for eighty-seven arrests, assisted in searching for 359 offenders, located seventy-four missing persons and evacuated 60 people to hospital. A replacement for the aircraft was sought and trials were undertaken of a Messerschmitt Bolkow BK117 C1 which was much larger than any of the previous models used by Devon & Cornwall Police. Despite being a long-term advocate of the helicopter over fixed wing aircraft, the Force trialled a Cessna 172M in 1997 which, ultimately, did not serve the Force's needs. The BK117 was the way forward and was the first unit in the Force to display the blue and yellow colour scheme adopted nationally around this time and the only BK117 with a Police role in Britain. The size of the new helicopter was soon used to its advantage transporting numerous load combinations including up to six firearms Officers or a four person fire brigade search team and dog. The generous cabin space and increased payload was invaluable for an average of twenty-five casualty evacuations during its final years of service. The helicopter was a secondhand demonstrator aircraft that had been flown for less than 300 miles.

The BK117 was incredibly advanced for its time and was equipped with then-revolutionary voice control technology which allowed the Observer to control maps, radios, video turrets and thermal cameras (also "new-fangled' at the time) by voice alone. The voice-controlled features of the BK117 were developed for military applications and the Devon & Cornwall Police helicopter was the first civilian aircraft in the world to use the technology.

Since the inception of the Air Support Unit in 1982, it had very much been a male-dominated specialism. That changed in 1994 when Anita Williams became the first female Air Observer in Devon & Cornwall Police.

The BK117, having flown approximately 8,600 hours, was replaced in 2010 with the Eurocopter EC145, the most advanced to date, at a cost of £4.5m plus £1.0m for role equipment. The registration G-DCPB, was naturally considered to stand for "Devon & Cornwall Pasty Bus"! Those who worked at Middlemoor at the time of the acquisition may remember the sad sight of the old BK117 positioned at a jaunty angle on the field whilst the flyboys tinkered with their shiny new EC145!