British Army "Flying Jeeps" / "Jumping Jeeps"

[hesham]

All of them again,maybe there is something new;

https://russellphillips.uk/project-prodigal-flying-cars/

 

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

Interestingly, the image that is described as the Westland Proposal appears to be the Saro P.540-2 that appears in post.

 

[EwenS]

In 1959 Westland acquired all of Saro’s Helicopter and hovercraft business. Presumably these vehicles were part of that acquisition.

 

[hesham]

We can say;

- Boulton Paul P.?
- Bristol Type-?
- Folland SK-?
- Handley Page HP.120
- Hawker P.?
- Saro P.540
- Shorts PD.46
- Vickers-Armstrong Type-?
- Westland PJD-?
- Westland-2 PJD-?

 

[autoeac]

They all appear to be underpowered—and only good for very short range. Some sort of attachable solution might be better. This and the other posts here are tied to the one of the last great innovations in aviation. Economical, scalable and safe vertical lift.

 

[Jason Dykstra (Wyvern)]

Were these projects similar to US projects to develop easy to fly/maintain helicopters which could be flown by soldiers or the "Flying Jeep" concepts such as the VZ-6, VZ-7, VZ-8 and VZ-9?

 

[Hood]

Were these projects similar to US projects to develop easy to fly/maintain helicopters which could be flown by soldiers or the "Flying Jeep" concepts such as the VZ-6, VZ-7, VZ-8 and VZ-9?

The idea behind these was a reconnaissance vehicle that could 'leap' over obstacles such as hedges and streams. The whole idea was that the normal driver would be capable of maintaining control during the airborne leap, without the need for any expensive helicopter training. The Army could barely find enough potential helicopter pilots with the right aptitude for the Army Air Corps, so finding more suitable personnel was out of the question.

It seems that a full list of all the companies who submitted designs has been lost (so far). The aircraft companies focused too much on aerial performance and English Electric's P.35 came closest to what the Army had in mind. Even so the whole concept seems odd, lacking any armour or real defensive armament, the 'Jumping Jeep' seems rather ill-suited for scouting and seems a very long-winded and complicated way to get around a hedge or a stream. The Army would have been better focusing on true air portable vehicles.

 

[uk 75]

It would be interesting to know if the Soviet Union ever bothered with similar vehicles in the BRDM class.
The French, German and Italian armies had a project for an amphibious Europa Jeep which reached the hardware stage and was dropped as too expensive and complicated.
The British Army reverted to the lightweight Land Rover and the Scorpion/Ferret families.
The Jumping Jeep belonged to the era when nuclear weapons were expected to be used early on and in sizeable quantities. By its cancelation in 1966 the NATO forces in Germany were geared to a conventional forward defence designed to delay nuclear release as long as possible. Once the battlefield was laid waste by nukes there would be little left of BAOR to jump anywhere.

 

[youROKer]

 

[Pirate Pete]

Perhaps not quite the same form of Jumping Jeep', but stumbled across this from an old Copy of Air Pictorial.

 

[hesham]

We can say;

- Boulton Paul P.?
- Bristol Type-?
- Folland SK-?
- Handley Page HP.120
- Hawker P.?
- Saro P.540
- Shorts PD.46
- Vickers-Armstrong Type-?
- Westland PJD-?
- Westland-2 PJD-?

Clearly,this compeition was called 92/58 ?.

 

[hesham]

From the site of my dear Stingray.

 

[Scott Kenny]

The answer to this (given in "Project Cancelled", I think) at that time was, that helicopter pilots still
needed (and need) a more sophisticated training, than fixed-wing pilots. Flight control systems, allowing
for care-free handling still didn't exist, so the aim was to qualify just the typical car driver for being able to
handle the (short ?) flight phase, too. and to my opinion, if actually built, this would have been the doom
for this idea !

Not sure that even now in 2026 that the flight control system would allow Tommy Soldier to safely operate one of these.

For scouting, a fiber-optic FPV drone is probably your better bet. For liaison, transporting random officers to meetings, well you have helicopters.

 

[TsrJoe]

Bristol 'flying car', Aerospace Bristol, 2026