PARIS: Airbus Helicopters on Tuesday announced the launch of its first all-new helicopter in about a decade: a light, twin-engined model aimed initially at emergency services.
The H140 helicopter in the 3 metric ton class will enter service in 2028 and expand on the existing H135, the world’s largest civil helicopter maker said in a statement.
Airbus said the new helicopter would offer a bigger cabin and would be powered by Safran’s Arrius 2E engine.
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The launch of a new helicopter follows an internal study code-named X8 aimed at preparing an eventual successor to the H135, industry sources said.
That comes two years after another coded project, X9, to develop a demonstrator for technologies to develop a successor to the larger H145, first revealed by Reuters in 2023.
Successors to the H135 and eventually the H145 would regenerate the German side of Airbus Helicopters, formed from a 1992 merger between divisions of France’s Aerospatiale and MBB of Germany to counter US rivals led by Bell, Boeing and Sikorsky and originally called Eurocopter. Spain joined later.
Donauwoerth in Bavaria is home to the twin-engined H135 and H145, while other civil programmes focus mainly on Marignane, France, where Airbus Helicopters is based.