Triton Helicopter Trials

(August 7th 2001)

Triton Helicopter Trials

On Wednesday 25 July a Royal Navy Lynx Mk 8 helicopter successfully carried out a series of landings and take-offs from the deck of RV Triton, the world's first trimaran warship demonstrator owned by QinetiQ (formerly DERA, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency).

Funded by the Defence Procurement Agency this was the latest success in RV Triton's demanding trials programme and the first time ever that a helicopter has landed on a trimaran.

Since delivery to QinetiQ in August of last year the ship has conducted a series of seakeeping and structural trials together with major Naval Operations trials, which included a replenishment at sea (RAS) with RFA Brambleleaf. Whilst visiting the USA's East Coast, RV Triton carried out side by side trials with the US Coastguard's USCGC Campbell. These included manoeuvring, seakeeping and comparative powering using a number of different bearings and ship's speeds. With the efficient hullform ensuring good seakeeping and excellent fuel consumption, and the large deck area providing flexibility of use, including operating and hangaring two helicopters, the trimaran design is ideally suited for US Coastguard use.

Leading into the major structural trials phase over the autumn and winter of this year, RV Triton is currently engaged in a major series of hydrodynamic trials. The trials programme has been very successful with results validating the earlier research and proving that the trimaran hullform can perform as well as, and in many cases better than, the monohull.

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