Boeing and the US government have signed a contract for the provision of 24 AH-64E Apache rotorcraft to Qatar. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress in 2014 that an authorisation had been granted to provide 24 of the type to Qatar, and a $667 million contract was signed on 7 June. In addition to the aircraft, one Longbow radar crew trainer will also be provided, plus grou...
Babcock Mission Critical Services Offshore has taken delivery of two brand new Sikorsky S-92 helicopters with a little help from one of the largest aircraft in the world. The S-92s made the journey from the U.S. manufacturers’ Philadelphia plant to Glasgow Prestwick Airport, United Kingdom, inside a massive Antonov An-124 Ruslan transport aircraft. The size of the Antonov means...
Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) has selected Safran Helicopter Engines as engine supplier for its Light Civil Helicopter (LCH). It will be powered with the existing Arriel 2C2 engine. On the Light Armed Helicopter (LAH), Safran has been selected by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), KAI and Hanwha Techwin. The LAH will feature a new engine designated Arriel 2L2. Safran Hel...
The European Aviation Safety Agency issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) on June 2 to ground the fleet of Airbus Helicopters AS332 L2 Super Puma and EC225 LP (H225) models, after more evidence of a potential unsafe condition in the main rotor assembly was discovered. This follows an April 29 crash of an EC225LP near Bergen, Norway....
Russian Helicopters, part of State Corporation Rostec, has signed memorandums of understanding with the Committee for Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and with other government structures of the Republic of Kazakhstan during KADEX-2016 defense expo. According to the documents, Kazakhstan' authorities are interested in Russian-made helicopters while Russian Helicopter...
Boeing and Sikorsky and have laid out their pitches for an expected German procurement of heavy-lift helicopters. Both the Boeing CH-47F Chinook and Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion are the prime candidates for the much-anticipated €3 billion ($3.35 billion) German Heavy Transport Helicopter Program (STH). The new aircraft will replace Germany’s aging fleet of license-built CH...
The German Defence Ministry decided on Friday to ground the three Airbus Cougar AS532 helicopters used to transport Chancellor Angela Merkel, after a Europe-wide grounding of the civilian version of the aircraft, a ministry spokesman said. An Airbus H225 Super Puma helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform operated by Statoil crashed on April 29, killing all 13 people on boar...
Enstrom Helicopter resumed flight testing of its new TH180 last Thursday, a two-seat model aimed at the training market. A second flight-test vehicle joined the program to restart testing, the company told AIN yesterday. On its first flight, test pilot William Taylor performed hover, forward flight and rigging checks on the new helicopter. The flight-test program h...
Norway's Civil Aviation Authority has extended its ban on the use of Airbus H225 Super Puma Helicopters in Norway to include search and rescue missions, the agency said in a statement on Thursday. The ban, which also includes an older version of the aircraft, follows the discovery of metal fatigue in the gear box of a Super Puma helicopter that crashed in Norway on April 29, killing all 13...
HNZ Group Inc., an international provider of helicopter transportation and related support services, announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, HNZ New Zealand Limited, has entered into an offshore oil and gas helicopter support contract with a consortium of customers which includes Shell Todd Oil Services Limited, AWE Taranaki Limited, OMV New Zealand Limited and Origin Energy Resources (K...
Airbus Helicopters and WIKING Helikopter Service GmbH signed a contract for two H145s in offshore configuration at the international aerospace exhibition ILA in Berlin, making them the first Airbus Helicopters products to be added to their WIKING Helikopter Service GmbH’s fleet. The delivery of the first H145 is scheduled for the end of the year. Both rotorcrafts will be used for the transfe...
Airbus Helicopters earlier this year passed an important milestone in the development of the high-speed, compound helicopter demonstrator currently being built as part of the Clean Sky 2 European research programme. A mockup of the breakthrough airframe design has just undergone windtunnel testing in an Airbus facility. The tests proved the viability of the chosen design in terms of efficiency, su...
