Police aircraft

Pages within this site

Each unit has its own page, with the aircraft described in as much detail as the notes from the time allow.

Aircraft registrations

Six registrations appear in the original site’s aircraft image list. Three of them are documented with photographs; the rest are recorded here so the list is not lost.

Registrations are as recorded in 2003. Several of these airframes have since been replaced or transferred.

The GMP helicopter: MD902 G-GMPS

The Greater Manchester helicopter was an MD Helicopters MD902 Explorer registered G-GMPS, based at Barton — Foxtrot 12 — alongside Barton Aerodrome in Salford. That is a detail worth noting: the force’s aircraft operated from the oldest municipal airfield in the country, which had been laid out in 1927 for aircraft a fraction of the size.

The unit operated twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year, and flew with a civilian pilot and two police observers: one seated to the immediate left of the pilot, and one to the rear right. Its air traffic callsign was “Police 151” and its police callsign “India 99”.

Figures as recorded in 2003. The aircraft was quoted at £3.2 million at the time, which is roughly what a fully equipped police helicopter cost before the national consolidation of police aviation.

Common features of a police helicopter

The pages that follow describe each aircraft individually, but the equipment fit was broadly similar across all three units. A police air support helicopter of 2003 carried a thermal imaging camera in a gimbal under the nose, a video downlink that could send pictures to a control room on the ground, a mapping computer, and a receiver for tracking signals from stolen vehicles.

• Thermal imaging. A forward-looking infrared camera, usually in a stabilised turret, able to see heat rather than light. This is what makes a helicopter useful after dark.
• Video downlink. A microwave link that sends what the camera sees to a receiver on the ground, so a commander can watch the same picture in real time.
• Mapping. A computer carrying both wide-area mapping for navigation and street level mapping detailed enough to read house numbers.
• Tracker. A receiver tuned to the transmitters fitted to vehicles and property, so a stolen car can be followed from above regardless of what it looks like.
• Searchlight. A high intensity lamp, typically quoted in millions of candle power.

The Merseyside page has the fullest description of an individual fit, and the West Yorkshire page includes cabin photographs.