Background
By the early 1960s, the Royal Marines and the British Army required a new type of vehicle that could be carried by air and that would replace the Austin Champ. Both had recently taken delivery of thei Westland Essex helicopter, able to carry 1.134 kg slung beneath, so the requirements were clear.
Clearly, the new vehicle would have to be a Land Rover, but the smallest model available was the 2.235mm wheelbase Series IIA, too heavy for the new helicopter. Land Rover hence began work on a lightweight version of said vehicle. The new vehicle was based on the Series IIA but had the advantage of featuring easily removable non-essential items. The resulting car was the Land Rover Half-Ton, known widely as the Airportable or Lightweight. In practice, the upper parts of the body, the doors and windscreen were removed when the car would be lifted by the helicopter in combat conditions, and would be refitted later. Another significant change was the reduction in width by 100mm, the result of redesigned axles and shorter axle half-shafts. As a result, the lightweight could fit on a standard pallet.
However extensive the modifications to the new car were, the term lightweight is somewhat misleading, as it was effectively heavier than the standard 88 Land Rover, but the higher weight was due to the various frame reinforcements required for military use. The car’s weight was below the limit when the detachable body panels were removed.
Dispatch of the new vehicle began on 11th November 1968 with production spanning over a total of 16 years until 1984.
Lightweight production ended in 1984 at which point a total of 37,897 Lightweights, petrols and diesels, were built.
