After 40 years of faithful service, the Lynx Helicopter is being withdrawn in favour of newer models, like the Wildcat. Four Lynx left RAF Odiham in Hampshire as the aircraft is decommissioned after 40 years of service. The tour took them past military bases and locations associated with the aircraft, before culminating in a chinook-led flypast along the length of River Thames at 800 feet.
The Lynx helicopter entered service in 1978 and has been used extensively within the Army Air Corps for a wide variety of roles and tasks throughout the world, including in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone.
It was primarily a battlefield utility helicopter, although it has also been used to destroy tanks, gather intelligence and provide humanitarian support.
Still to this day, the Lynx is the fastest helicopter in the world, and, thanks to its semi-rigid titanium rotor head, it is also very manoeuvrable.
It has proved itself on different environments and temperatures, from the sub-zero environment of the Arctic to the dust bowls of the Middle East.
It is set to be replaced in the British Army by the Wildcat.
The Royal Navy said goodbye to the Lynx helicopter with a similar flypast last year after 41 years of service.
