Airbus has secured long-awaited certification for its H160 twin-engine medium helicopter from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), but the company needs to wait for approvals from the U.S. FAA before the first delivery can take place.
EASA signed off on the six-metric ton rotorcraft on July 1, but the certification comes with several special conditions and deviations the manufacture is working to resolve. FAA certification is expected to follow shortly, allowing the OEM to deliver to the H160’s launch customer, an undisclosed operator in the U.S., later this year.
The type certificate describes the aircraft as the H160-B and clears it for visual flight rules operation by day and night and instrument flight rules in non-icing conditions.
The H160, which will replace H155 in the company’s product line, is the first entirely new product to emerge from the company since its re-branding from Eurocopter to Airbus Helicopters in 2016. Initially developed as the X4, the aircraft is intended as a counter to Leonardo’s dominance of the medium-helicopter market with its AW139. Airbus hopes to cash in on a replacement wave as operators look at retiring their early model AW139s, Bell 412s and Sikorsky S-76s.
Powered by two Safran Arrano 1A turboshafts, the H160 introduces advanced Blue Edge blades to reduce the noise signature of the aircraft, and the company has introduced a new version of its Helionix avionics suite that features a recovery mode and a Vortex Ring State (VRS) warning system.
The company also adopted a new approach to the aircraft’s development and production processes, assembling the aircraft through a series of Major Component Assemblies.
“This achievement represents years of hard work designing, industrializing and defining the support ecosystem with our suppliers and partners and I would like to thank everyone who has dedicated their time and energy to turning this next generation helicopter into reality,” said Bruno Even, Airbus Helicopters CEO.
With civil certification secured, Airbus also can start to work on the military version of the rotorcraft, the H160M, to be christened Guepard by the French Armed Forces and introduced as part of its HIL Joint Light Helicopter program. The program is expected to get underway formally in 2021, although the French Navy will receive four commercial model H160s for search-and-rescue operations in the Atlantic and the English Channel from a consortium of Airbus, Babcock and Safran. The country’s Gendarmerie, the military police, is due to receive 10 H160s as part of the modernization of its rotary-wing fleet.
