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Swiss Air Force retires the Alouette III

14th December 2010 - 12:00 GMT | by Tony Osborne in London

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The Swiss Air Force has retired the Alouette III light helicopter, after 46 years of service and 300,000 flight hours.

The last flight took place on 10 December with a formation flight over the type's home base at Alpnach.

In total 84 examples of the Alouette were operated by the air arm, the first entering service in 1964. Nine aircraft were delivered from Sud Aviation at Marignane that year, and a further 15 were procured. In 1972, it was decided that the air force needed a further 60 and these would be produced by the aircraft works at Emmen.

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Author

Tony Osborne

Tony was deputy editor of Defence Helicopter and Rotorhub magazines before joining Aviation Week in …

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