AIRBUS HELICOPTERS has begun high altitude flight trials of the five-bladed version of its twinengine H145 helicopter in Chile, the company announced on June 27, 2019.
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The helicopter is expected to gain European Aviation Safety Agency type certification in early 2020, with first deliveries later in the year. Airbus Helicopters has already performed some trials with the five-bladed H145 in the French Pyrenees in the summer of 2018, but the campaign in Chile will see the helicopter operating in the Andes, at altitudes up to 20,000 feet (6,100m) above sea level.
Airbus Helicopters said: “The objective of the campaign is to expand the flight envelope of the new helicopter and demonstrate its capabilities at high altitudes.”
Nigel Pittaway