AW101 Merlin
ICAO EH10A three-engine medium helicopter flying troop lift, submarine hunting and mountain rescue. Live AW101 Merlin positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30sAirframe
- Manufacturer
- Leonardo
- Role
- Medium-lift, anti-submarine and search and rescue helicopter
- Class
- H3T — Helicopter, 3 turboshaft engines
- Crew
- 3 to 4
- First flight
- 9 October 1987
- In service
- 1999
Operators airborne
About the AW101 Merlin
The AW101 is unusual in having three engines, which gives it a performance margin over water that two-engine helicopters cannot match. That is why it ended up in the roles it did: Royal Navy anti-submarine work, Royal Air Force and Commando troop lift, and long-range search and rescue.
Norway flies it as the SAR Queen, covering some of the most demanding rescue territory in Europe, and Canada operates it as the CH-149 Cormorant. Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Poland and Japan are the other significant users.
Norwegian and British aircraft are the most consistent transmitters here. Anti-submarine sorties produce the same patient over-water patterns a P-8 flies, at much lower speed.
Callsign prefixes
- RRR
- Ascot — Royal Air Force
- NAVY
- Royal Navy Merlin flights
- RESCUE
- Norwegian and British search and rescue tasking
How to recognise it
- —Three engines above the cabin — count the intakes, no other helicopter in this class has three.
- —A five-blade main rotor and a deep, boxy fuselage with a rear ramp on some variants.
- —Large for a medium helicopter: roughly the size of a small airliner fuselage.
Common questions
+ Why does the AW101 have three engines?
Redundancy over water. With three, the loss of one leaves ample power to continue, which matters on long over-sea sorties where there is nowhere to put down.
+ What is the SAR Queen?
Norway's name for its AW101 search and rescue fleet, which replaced the Sea King. They cover a coastline and mountain range where rescue ranges are unusually long.
+ Is the Merlin the same as the Cormorant?
Same aircraft, different names. Canada designates its AW101s CH-149 Cormorant; Britain calls them Merlin. Both report as EH10.