Whirlwind and Sea King experience helped create helicopter AEW

The Whirlwind gave 824 Squadron helicopter experience across the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Middle East, Indian Ocean, and Far East. With Sea Kings the unit again mixed roles, including the first helicopter airborne-early-warning flight. That flight performed well enough to become part of a separate 849 Squadron. The mixed-role tradition raises a counterfactual: continuing it might eventually have produced a Merlin-like helicopter able to accept swappable AEW, commando, transport, ASW, or mine-warfare payloads. The organization and technology were not ready for that approach when the specialist-squadron decision was made in the early 1980s.