WONZ 185 – Barry Lennox on Kaman Helicopters

Guest: Barry Lennox

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 30th of June 2018

Released: 20th of July 2018

Duration: 1 hour 3 minutes 21 seconds

This is the third speaker at the recent Wings Over New Zealand Forum Meet held at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand, at Wigram, Christchurch.

Barry Lennox worked part-time in the “wireless” and the then-new TV industries before joining the RNZAF as an Air Radio mechanic and worked his way up the ranks to become the Avionics advisor to Air Staff. He then left the RNZAF and worked for a while in the top secret world of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) He was one of the senior engineers involved in the construction of the Waihopai Station in Marlborough during this time

But his story for this talk focuses on the next phase of his career, because he moved to the USA and worked for the famous Kaman Aerospace. Barry was tasked with working on the Kaman SH-2 Seasprite helicopters.

In this fascinating presentation Barry details the history of the company and the origins of the unusual designs that Kaman have produced, before he switches to his own personal experiences with the Seasprites. The Seasprites have previously served with No. 3 Squadron RNZAF and currently serve with No. 6 Squadron RNZAF, based at RNZAF Station Whenuapai and deploying to several of the RoyalNew Zealand Navy’s vessels.

Quick Links:

• Kaman Aerosystems

• Kaman on Wikipedia