HMS Queen Elizabeth has arrived back in Portsmouth following successful first of class rotary wing trials in the Atlantic. 

The trials were conducted with two Merlin Mk2 and two Chinook Mk 5 test platforms. A thousand deck landings have been carried out in a range of sea and weather conditions and both airframe types have flown an average of ten hours a day. The data will be processed over the coming months and will eventually provide the Ship Helicopter Operating Limits (SHOL) information for a range of helicopters including Merlin Mk2, 3 and 4, Chinook, the Apache attack helicopter and Wildcat. The aim is to achieve the widest SHOL envelope possible, so the ship is not constrained in its ability to manoeuvre.