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By Daniel Guevarra |
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December 18, 2009 - "It's an immense pleasure to see the EC175 soaring through the skies," declared Eurocopter CEO Lutz Bertling. Eurocopter EC175 helicopter, the latest member of the Eurocopter range, performed its official maiden flight in the skies above Marignane on Thursday. At the controls were Alain Di Bianca, Eurocopter Experimental Test Pilot, as well as Michel Oswald and Patrick Bremont, Flight Test Engineers. Officials,
industrial partners, launch customers and Eurocopter employees were all
on hand for the event. This newest addition to the Eurocopter family in
the 7-metric-ton class has been developed and manufactured in
cooperation with the China Aeronautics Industries Group Corp. (AVIC), a
longstanding Eurocopter partner. |
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"This helicopter was developed in close cooperation with our customers
to ensure it would be perfectly suited to their needs—particularly in
terms of safety and comfort. This is the product everyone's been waiting
for on the civil market. I would like to congratulate and thank our
colleagues from
The new generation EC175 has a multirole design and can carry out a wide
scope of civil missions. It slots perfectly into the Eurocopter range
between the AS365 Dauphin (4/5 metric tons) and the AS332/EC225 Super
Puma (9/11 metric tons) families. It benefits from a mix of proven and
advanced technologies, making it a very performing and reliable
helicopter. Depending on its configuration, it can hold up to 16
passengers. A total of 114 EC175s have already been ordered by 14
different customers. Certification of the EC175 by the European Aviation
Safety Agency (EASA) is slated for 2011, and the first deliveries are
scheduled to follow in 2012. Eurocopter expects to sell 800 EC175s over
the next twenty years, creating nearly 2000 new direct and indirect
jobs.
The EC175 program was launched on December 5, 2005. The helicopter was
developed in cooperation with Chinese industry in just four years thanks
to innovative new computing tools that offer major time savings. The
work teams, separated by some 10,000 km, have been working together
under the aegis of the French and Chinese governments. Their cooperation
has been exemplary, and has benefitted from 30 years of close ties
between the partners, first through the Dauphin and then through the
EC120. During the development phase, an average of 50 Chinese employees
joined their Eurocopter colleagues in
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The development and industrialization work has been equally split
between Eurocopter and AVIC according to the specialties of each
company. Two different helicopters will result from the common platform:
The EC175 manufactured, sold and maintained by Eurocopter in Marignane
and the Z15, manufactured, sold and maintained by the AVIC Group.
The EC175 benefits from the most cutting-edge technology available. It
is powered by twin Pratt & Whitney PT6C-67E engines with dual-channel
new generation Full Authority Digital Engine Controls (FADEC). With its
completely new avionics, the EC175 has an effective and easy-to-use man
machine interface, which considerably reduces the pilot workload. Both
the pilot and co-pilot can therefore concentrate more fully on their
missions. The EC175 is indeed equipped with a full screen cockpit and a
digital four-axis Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS) that
outperforms any other automatic pilot system on the market. It also has
a five-blade Spheriflex main rotor and an airframe that complies with
the most stringent certification requirements.
The EC175 offers the widest cabin of any helicopter in its category,
which provides an unmatched level of comfort. The aircraft can be
boarded easily using the wide sliding doors on either side of the
fuselage and the immense baggage compartment is also accessible from
both sides of the helicopter. All very large windows offer a great
visibility and can be jettisoned so that passengers and crew can quickly
exit the helicopter in the event of an emergency.
The EC175 has also been designed to reduce vibration levels to a
minimum; its blade design has taken forward the concepts that have
proven so successful on the EC155 and EC225. Special care has been taken
to reduce both internal and external noise levels to make the EC175 the
quietest helicopter in its class, offering levels well below the limits
recently established by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Established in 1992, the Franco-German-Spanish Eurocopter Group is a Division of EADS, a world leader in aerospace, defence and related services. The Eurocopter Group employs approx. 15,600 people. In 2008, Eurocopter confirmed its position as the world’s No. 1 helicopter manufacturer in the civil and parapublic market, with a turnover of 4.5 billion Euros, orders for 715 new helicopters, and a 53 percent market share in the civil and parapublic sectors. Overall, the Group’s products account for 30 percent of the total world helicopter fleet. Its strong worldwide presence is ensured by its 18 subsidiaries on five continents, along with a dense network of distributors, certified agents and maintenance centres. More than 10,000 Eurocopter helicopters are currently in service with over 2,800 customers in more than 140 countries. Eurocopter offers the largest civil and military helicopter range in the world. |
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