On March 1960 Westland acquired the helicopter division of the Bristol Aircraft Company, which was based at Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. The helicopter division was led by the rotorcraft pioneer Raoul Hafner and since its foundation in 1944 had been responsible for the Sycamore (First flight 27th July 1947) and Belvedere (First flight 5th July 1958) helicopters
Having acquired Bristol,
Westland became responsible for support of the Sycamore and completion of Belvedere development and production