Rotorcraft Highlights of 2016

Airbus Helicopters will provide 29 H135s and three H145s (pictured) from 2018 to reequip the UK’s Defense Helicopter Flying School under a 17-year, £500 million ($720 million) contract awarded in March 2016 by the Ascent consortium running the UK’s Military Flight Training System program.

German startup E-Volo began manned test flights of its Volocopter VC200 electric-powered two-seat multicopter in March. The 900-lb. VC200 has an array of 18 battery-powered propellers on a fixed, branching structure above the cockpit. E-Volo is targeting urban air-taxi services as early as 2020.

Local production of 109 Sikorsky Black Hawks formally began in June under the Turkish Utility Helicopter Program. Turkish Aerospace Industries is prime contractor for the $3.5 billion program to build 109 modified S-70is, designated T70s, for the Turkish armed forces. Sikorsky’s Polish subsidiary PZL Mielec delivered the T70 prototype, an S-70i (pictured), to Sikorsky and Aselsan for digital cockpit development.

Avic and Russian Helicopters’ Advanced Heavy Lifter (AHL) will be an almost entirely Chinese product, according to a June agreement between Beijing and Moscow. The program will be managed by Avic. Russian Helicopters will develop certain subsystems on contract, but not build them. The 38-metric-ton AHL is expected to be certified by 2025.

Russian Helicopters in May began long-awaited flight tests of the Kamov Ka-62 medium twin at Progress Aviation in Arsenyev, north of Vladivostock. Derived from the military Ka-60 flown in 1990, the 6-7-ton commercial helicopter is powered by Turbomeca Ardiden 3G turboshafts.

General Electric and a Honeywell/Pratt & Whitney joint venture in August received contracts worth $102 million and $154 million, respectively, to take competing 3,000-shp turboshafts to preliminary design reviews early in 2018 under the U.S. Army’s Improved Turbine Engine Program to reengine AH-64 Apaches and UH-60 Black Hawks.

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) flew its Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) for the first time on Sept. 6. Powered by a single HAL/Turbomeca Shakti 1U turboshaft, the 6,000-lb.-class LUH is India’s third indigenous helicopter design after HAL’s ALH Dhruv and its Light Combat Helicopter derivative.

A team of students from the University of Maryland achieved the first flight of a solar-powered piloted helicopter on Sept. 9; the Solar Gamera flew for 9 sec. and reached an altitude of 1 ft. The Gamera team previously set a duration record for human-powered helicopter flight of 97 sec. in 2013.

Bell Helicopter in September unveiled the V-247 Vigilant tiltrotor it is proposing for an emerging U.S. Marine Corps requirement for a ship-based expeditionary endurance unmanned aircraft. With an 11-hr. time on station at 450-nm radius with a 600-lb. payload, the V-247 could be ready for production by 2023, says Bell.

Korean Air’s aerospace division and Boeing in September signed a memorandum agreement to codevelop an armed unmanned version of the MD 500 light helicopter. The program will convert MD 500 light scouts license-produced by Korean Air for the South Korean army and scheduled to be retired. Boeing will also assist with international marketing of the aircraft.

A Robinson R44 light helicopter modified to electric power completed initial flights in September, including hovering and a 5-min. cruise at 400 ft., reaching speeds up to 80 kt. The helicopter was modified by California-based Tier 1 Engineering under contract from Lung Biotechnology to produce an electrically powered semiautonomous rotorcraft for manufactured organ delivery.

Italy’s defense ministry in October gave the green light to development of a new attack helicopter based on Leonardo Helicopters’ AW149. To be funded by Italy’s economic development ministry, the Future Surveillance and Escort Helicopter to replace the AW129 Mangusta would ready by 2025.

Singapore selected Airbus Helicopters H225M (pictured) and Boeing’s CH-47F to replace its AS332M Super Puma medium- and CH-47D heavy-lift helicopters. Kuwait ordered 30 H22Ms in August and the U.S. has put out an official notice of potential sales of 48 CH-48Fs to Saudi Arabia and 28 Boeing AH-64Es to the United Arab Emirates.

China’s Avic flew the AC532 intermediate helicopter on Dec. 20, seven years after Airbus Helicopters flew its H175 version of the jointly developed 7-ton-class turbine twin. The AC352 is powered by Safran Ardiden 3C turboshafts, produced by Aircraft Engine Corp. of China as the WZ16.

Bell Helicopter received Transport Canada type certification for the Model 505 five-seat light helicopter on Dec. 21 and plans to begin initial deliveries to Canadian customers early in 2017. The 505 is powered by a Safran Arriel 2R and has a Garmin G1000H flight deck.