Airbus Helicopters

Airbus Helicopters

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Aerospace
Founded	1992 (1992)
Headquarters	Marseille Provence Airport Marignane, France
Key people	Guillaume Faury (CEO)
Products	Helicopters
Revenue	€6.3 billion (2013)
Number of employees	23,000
Parent	Airbus Group
Subsidiaries	Subsidiaries
Website	airbushelicopters.com

Airbus Helicopters (formerly Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus Group. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries. Its head office is located at Marseille Provence Airport in Marignane, France, near Marseille.^[1] The main facilities of Airbus Helicopters are at its headquarters in Marignane, France and in Donauwörth, Germany, with additional production plants in Brazil (Itajubá,MG), Australia, Spain and the United States. The company was renamed Airbus Helicopters on 2 January 2014.^[2]

History

Airbus Helicopters was formed in 1992 as Eurocopter Group, through the merger of the helicopter divisions of Aérospatiale and DASA. The company's heritage traces back to Blériot and Lioré et Olivier in France and to Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf in Germany.^[3]

AS350 BA Ecureuil

Airbus Helicopters and its predecessor companies have established a wide range of helicopter firsts, including the first production turboshaft-powered helicopter (the Aérospatiale Alouette II of 1955); the introduction of the Fenestron shrouded tail rotor (on the Gazelle of 1968); the first helicopter certified for full flight in icing conditions (the AS332 Super Puma, in 1984); the first production helicopter with a Fly-by-wire control system (the NHIndustries NH90, first flown in full FBW mode in 2003); the first helicopter to use a Fly-by-light primary control system (an EC135 testbed, first flown in 2003); and the first ever landing of a helicopter on Mt. Everest (achieved by an AS350 B3 in 2005).^[4][5][6]

Eurocopter logo before rebranding to Airbus Helicopters

As a consequence of the merger of Airbus Helicopters' former parents in 2000, the firm is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Airbus Group. The creation of what was then called EADS in 2000 also incorporated CASA of Spain, which itself had a history of helicopter-related activities dating back to Talleres Loring, including local assembly of the Bo105.

Today, Airbus Helicopters has four main plants in Europe (Marignane and La Courneuve in France, and Donauwörth and Kassel in Germany), plus 32 subsidiaries and participants around the world, including those in Brisbane, Australia, Albacete, Spain and Grand Prairie, USA.^[7][8]

As of 2014, more than 12,000 Airbus Helicopters were in service with over 3,000 customers in around 150 countries.^[9]

Eurocopter sold 422 helicopters in 2013 and delivered 497 helicopters that year.^[10] In 2014, AH built a concrete cylinder for testing helicopters before first flight.^[11]

Products

AS332 Super Puma

When the division changed its name from Eurocopter Group to Airbus Helicopters in 2014 the trade names of the products were changed (applied by 1 January 2016) to reflect this. Suffixes, as well as the differentiation for single or twin engines, were no longer to be used. Military versions were to be symbolized by the letter M. The only exceptions to this new branding were the AS350 B2, AS635 and 565, the EC145e, the AS332 and 532, the Tiger and the NH90, which will keep their current names.:^[12]

NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH)

EC135 T2+

EC145

EC120 Colibri

Tiger ARH

• AS332 Super Puma – medium-sized twin-engined transport/utility helicopter
• AS350 Ecureuil/AStar – light single-engine utility helicopter
• AS355 Ecureuil 2/TwinStar – light twin-engine utility helicopter
• AS365 Dauphin – medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter
• AS532 Cougar – twin-engined, medium-weight, multipurpose helicopter
• AS550 Fennec & AS555 Fennec 2 – single- and twin-engined, light-weight, multipurpose helicopters
• AS565 Panther – military medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter
• EC120 Colibri (with Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation) – 5-seat, single-engine, single main rotor, light helicopter
• EC130 – light single-engine 'wide-body' helicopter
• EC135 – light twin-engine civil helicopter
• EC145 – twin-engine intermediate utility helicopter
• EC155 – long-range medium-lift passenger transport helicopter
• H160 (X4) – Twin medium helicopter in development to replace the AS365 and EC155 models
• EC175 – medium-sized twin-engined transport/utility helicopter
• EC225 Super Puma – long-range passenger transport helicopter
• EC635 – military light multi-purpose helicopter
• EC645 – military intermediate multi-purpose helicopter
• Eurocopter UH-72 Lakota – light utility helicopter in operation with the U.S. Army and Navy
• EC665 Tiger – dedicated military attack helicopter
• EC725 Cougar – long-range tactical transport helicopter
• HH/MH-65C/D Dolphin – medium-sized search & rescue and drug interdiction helicopter
• NHIndustries NH90 – medium-sized, twin-engine, multi-role military, fly-by-wire helicopter (via 62.5% share in NHI joint venture)
• KAI KUH-1 Surion – medium-sized twin-engined transport/utility helicopter developed in cooperation with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI)
• X³ rotorcraft – hybrid helicopter with two forward propellers, which achieved a 255-knot speed milestone in level flight in June 2011.^[13]
• X6 – Two year concept study into the possible launch of an 11.5t helicopter to replace the H225.^[14][15]

Some of the helicopters were renamed in 2015, resembling Airbus airplane naming.^[16]

Note: On Airbus Helicopters aircraft designed in France, the main rotor turns clockwise when viewed from above, in common with rotorcraft deriving from Russia. Airbus Helicopters products developed in Germany have a main rotor which turns counter-clockwise when viewed from above, in common with American rotorcraft.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Airbus Helicopters.

• Official Airbus Helicopters website
• Helibras
• Airbus Helicopters timeline at Helis.com