In his foreword  the Chairman of Westland Helicopters clearly defines the concept of this disc: 'A company's heritage is preserved in the images describing its evolution'.

This illustrated history tells how the 'oil engine' Petter brothers offer to help the war effort was taken up by the Admiralty with a contract to build 12 Short 184s. Success in producing their first aircraft within 10 months resulted in the firm's rapid expansion with contracts to build other designs by Short, Sopwith, de Havilland and Vickers at their Westland Works outside Yeovil. Luckily their Vimy and DH9A work kept the factory alive during the struggle to create a civil market in the unstable post-war years, these successes and failures all being illustrated. 

Concise detailed histories of 18 types (10 WW1) in this volume accompany from 4 to 19 images for each aircraft in the first war category, including some attractive contemporary colour profiles. Many of the photographs, seldom seen works prints now preserved by the RAeS Yeovil Branch, reasonably scanned down at 300dpi, make this a collection well worth having; but sadly the ravages of time, showing on others which could easily have been repaired, do not quite reach the standard this series is striving for. Nevertheless, if you have not much about Westland on your bookshelf, this will be a useful reference. Volume 2 should be equally interesting.